Auckland Hearts are Aotearoa's Hallyburton Johnstone Shield champions after they defeated Northern Spirit in the final held in Hamilton on Saturday. The H-B Shield is the national women's 50-over competition and Northern finished top of the table after 10 games, going 8-1-1 through the course of the competition as Auckland finished 2nd via their 6-3-1 record.

This put the two most northern teams in the final together and Auckland were up first with the bat, cruising to 322 from their 50 overs. Opener Lauren Down hit 90 @ 104.65sr, Arlene Kelly came in at #3 to hit a 110 @ 90.90sr and #4 Katie Perkins added the icing on top with 63 @ 126sr to do the bulk of the run-scoring for Auckland. Lauren Heaps was the best bowler for Northern, taking 2w @ 5.60rpo, limiting the damage done by Auckland in dismissing both Kelly and Perkins.

Chasing 300 was always going to be tricky for Northern and they weren't too far off via 124 @ 103.33sr from Felicity Leydon-Davis who came in at #3. No other Spirit batswomen passed 35 though, which saw Northern all-out for 255 in 44.5 overs thanks to 3w @ 5.87rpo from Fran Jonas and 2w @ 6.44rpo from Bella Armstrong.

There were a bunch of White Ferns involved in this game, returning to Aotearoa after the T20 World Cup and they were conveniently all part of the Auckland team. Down, Perkins, Anna Peterson and Holly Huddleston formed a strong core for Auckland, all of whom enjoyed greater responsibility in the Hearts line up with Peterson and Huddleston sliding up the order from their roles with the White Ferns.

Peterson was the only one of those four who did anything of note in the World Cup, playing three games. Compare that to Down, Perkins and Huddleston who combined for one game (Perkins played vs Sri Lanka) during the World Cup, slide back into the domestic landscape though where Down and Perkins were instrumental in the Auckland batting innings.

In pondering the connection between women's domestic cricket in Aotearoa and international cricket, I fall back to what I wrote early in 2019 as many of the best domestic players in Aotearoa can't translate that into White Ferns performances. That's due to a variety of reasons and I generally believe that the lack of investment in women's cricket plays a large role; up and coming players are not given the ideal preparation for international cricket.

Take Down for example, who is clearly a talented batswomen and perhaps the best batting prospect in Aotearoa. Down scored 261 runs @ 43.50avg/86.42sr in the H-J Shield this summer on the back of a 2018/19 campaign in which she scored 341 runs @ 37.88avg, all of which has amounted to Down scoring 75 runs @ 7.50avg in her 11 ODI games for Aotearoa.

That's not an indictment on Down, merely an example of the prickly abyss that sits between domestic cricket and international cricket for these kiwi wahine. This makes it difficult to assess the talent in Aotearoa because there are a few impressive performers in domestic cricket who could be pushing for international selection, yet the trend is that these younger players struggle at the next level.

Northern's century hitter Leydon-Davis finished 3rd in runs (421 runs @ 52.62avg) for this H-J Shield, while her comrade Caitlin Gurrey finished 1st (576 runs @ 72avg), Leydon-Davis is 25-years-old and Gurrey is 24yrs. Leydon-Davis played an ODI back in 2014 and actually performed well to throw a spanner into my equation, scoring 10* and taking 5w @ 3.60rpo, but has not been selected again, while Gurrey isn't too far behind Down as far as batting prospects go.

Scoring two centuries and four 50s, Gurrey passed 50 in six of her 11ins in the H-J Shield and this came after Gurrey finished 3rd in Super Smash runs with 416 runs @ 52avg/133.33sr. Outside of the White Ferns squad, Gurrey is clearly making waves to add to her two T20I games vs India early in 2019, however opportunities are limited and one has to wonder if Gurrey for example is being given the tools and resources to make the jump up to international cricket and perform consistently.

The top-three for runs in this H-J Shield campaign have all played for the White Ferns in either ODI or T20I cricket as Frances Mackay joins the two Northern youngsters with her 569 runs @ 94.83avg via a whopping four centuries in 7inns. Mackay is quite clearly among the best cricketers in Aotearoa and she also finished 3rd in wickets with 13w @ 16.69avg/.2.93rpo via her offies; I'd go a step further and say that there is a strong case for Mackay being in the best 11 cricketers in Aotearoa.

Mackay got a random taste of international cricket in that T20I series vs India, which now looks like a token gesture as Mackay was quickly excluded and hasn't played an ODI since 2014. Along with NZC's lack of serious investment in women's cricket, there are weird situations like this with Mackay who probably should be in the White Ferns consistently but isn't, compounded by younger players not performing when promoted to the White Ferns.

This amounts to a pile of confusing weirdness when trying to assess women's cricket in Aotearoa. The White Ferns have quite clearly plateaued from their position alongside the best cricket teams, perhaps even trending downwards and it's a weird situation where - outside of the investment/resource issue - different players could add value to the White Ferns, although there is a steady trend of young players struggling and players like Mackay ignored.

With the ball, Bella Armstrong finishes as the leading wicket-taker thanks to her 24w @ 14.95avg/3.93rpo. Armstrong is rather similar to Wellington's Jess Kerr as they are both righty-seamers who move the ball into right-handed batters, while Northern's Eimear Richardson was 2nd in wickets with 22w @ 19.90avg/4.92rpo via her offies and then Mackay finished 3rd.

Northern's Lauren Heaps caught the attention, not merely for her 2w in the final which took her to 9w @ 28.55avg/4.28rpo overall as Heaps also took 8w @ 20avg/7.61rpo in the Super Smash. Jonas from Auckland is also someone to keep tabs on moving forward with her 3w giving her 7w @ 21.14avg/3.81rpo overall, after a reasonably solid Super Smash campaign in which Jonas took 6w @ 33.50avg/6.62rpo.

In pondering women's cricket in Aotearoa, I'm left feeling positive that if a priority is placed on women's cricket by NZC and players are given ample resource to improve, there are more than enough players on the brink of international cricket who would benefit greatly. Here is a rough group of cricketers who were not selected in the White Ferns T20 World Cup Squad, but have played for Aotearoa in recent years and/or are on the rise to that point: Caitlin Gurrey (ND) Frances Mackay (Cant) Felicity Leydon-Davis (ND) Jess Watkin (CD) Hannah Rowe (CD) Bernadine Bezuidenhout (ND) Thamsyn Newton (Well) Fran Jonas (Auck) Arlene Kelly (Auck) Natalie Dodd (ND) Bella Armstrong (Auck)

Point being that there is an abundance of pure cricket talent in Aotearoa, which forms the foundation for the growth and expansion of women's cricket in Aotearoa. That talent needs support and nourishment to build into international cricket though and that's the greatest area of weakness for women's cricket in Aotearoa as the gap between domestic and international cricket is too substantial right now. The talent is there, it just needs the support to have an impact on the White Ferns and international performances.

Hit an ad to support the Niche Cache, or jump on Patreon help us hit our goal of 50 Patrons. Chur.

Peace and love 27.