2020/21 HBJ Shield: Second Round Wrap
Canterbury wahine are cruising at the top of the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield ladder are two wins over the weekend saw them maintain their unbeaten start to Aotearoa's 50-over women's competition. Auckland Hearts grabbed two wins over Otago Sparks, while Central Hinds won the first game vs Wellington Blaze before the Blaze bounced back to win the Sunday game via Jess McFadyen's 61* not out.
In the absence of Wellington's White Ferns, wicket-keeper McFadyen is holding things down for the 1-3 Wellington outfit and with scores of 23, 107, 25 and 53* McFadyen joins Canterbury's Katie Ebrahim and Northern Districts' Brooke Halliday as the three batswomen with 200+ runs after four games. There is an extra splash of funk with McFadyen as she finished fourth in HBJ Shield runs last summer and she has already passed last season's mark of one century and one 50+ score in 9inns, hitting a century and half-century already in 4inns this summer.
For Central Hinds, Jess Watkin's all-round contributions lead the way with the fringe-White Fern taking 4w @ 1.50rpo in 8.4ov, as well as a cheeky 29 off 27 balls batting #3 on the Saturday before duck having moved up the order to open and a solid 2w @ 2.30rpo in 10ov. Watkin is currently seventh in runs, with the only 100+ strike-rate of the top-10 batswomen and Watkin certainly isn't mucking around as her strike-rate is 156.57.
Watkin has hit 7 sixes in 4inns and next best are Ebrahim and Natalie Cox for Canterbury who have both hit 2 sixes. On top of that, Watkin is also the best bowler for Central with 8w @ 6.25avg/1.63rpo which is super efficient considering Watkin has bowled 30.4ov and that's easily the busiest bowler for Central, among the busiest for the competition. White Ferns seamer Hannah Rowe didn't take a wicket in her 9 overs across the weekend, although she did hit 62 batting in the middle order for Central.
20-year-old Central leggy Georgia Atkinson took 3w over the weekend and has 5w @ 12.20avg/2.97rpo, plus she hit 58 runs @ 80.55sr in the first innings with the bat vs Wellington. That's just another young wahine appearing to make moves in domestic cricket and as was the vibe in the previous HBJ Shield wrap, the best bowlers in the HBJ Shield are all part of the young wave sweeping over Aotearoa cricket - perfectly align with what we're seeing in Plunket Shield/Ford Trophy.
Jacinta Savage had a hearty weekend for Canterbury as the 25-year-old took scored 59 in the middle order for Canterbury to steer them to a competitive total, then Savage took 6w @ 2.51rpo in 7.1ov to seal the victory on Saturday. Ebrahim took over in the Sunday game with the bat, hitting 63 while Savage chipped in with 26 before taking 2w @ 2.30rpo in her 10overs and Sarah Asmussen took 3w @ 4.10rpo in 10ov for a weekend sweep of Northern.
Savage now leads all wicket-taker with 11w @ 9.54avg/3.60rpo and 20-year-old Cantab leggy Asmussen is right behind Savage with 10w @ 10.40avg/4rpo. They sit on top of a group of eight bowlers who have taken 7+ wickets, all of whom have played all four games thus far and all of whom are younger kiwi cricketers...
Jacinta Savage - Canterbury - 26yrs - righty seam.
Sarah Asmussen - Canterbury - 20yrs - righty leggy.
Jess Watkin - Central - 22yrs - righty offies.
Charlotte Sarsfield - Northern - 27yrs - righty offies.
Claudia Green - Central - 23yrs - righty seam.
Monique Rees - Wellington - 20yrs - righty seam.
Emma Black - Otago - 19yrs - righty seam.
Auckland cruised to two wins over Otago, although Caitlin Blakely is emerging as a young batswoman to keep tabs on as she hit 44* in the first game, to go with a knock of 78 in the prior round of fixtures. The likes of Ebrahim and Mackay for Canterbury, McFadyen with Wellington and Caitlin Gurrey for Northern have carried over last summer's work to again be at the top of the run-scorer charts this season, now sprinkled in to the mix we have Blakely and Northern's Halliday as two young batters who may be emerging through the fog.
Halliday hit 13 and 101* in the first round, then the 25-year-old served up scores of 16 and 77 over the weekend to be sitting in third for runs behind McFadyen and Ebrahim. Halliday's strike-rate of 86.61 is notable considering that her and Watkin are the only players with strike-rates over 85 in the group of nine batswomen with 100+ runs. 24-year-old Blakely had two 50+ scores in 9inns last summer and along with Halliday not passing 50 in her 5inns last summer, they've already made an impact as low key improvers.
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