2023/24 HBJ Shield: Round One Notebook (The Young Wave)

Hallyburton Johnstone Shield cricket is underway for the summer and rain was a key performer in the opening weekend, ruling out a bunch of games. Otago and Wellington managed to play two games against each other and they shared a win each. Central Districts defeated Canterbury on Saturday and Auckland defeated Northern Districts on Sunday as the other results.

  1. Auckland: 1-0 | 7 points

  2. Central Districts: 1-0 | 6 points

  3. Otago: 1-1 | 5 points

  4. Wellington: 1-1 | 4 points

  5. Canterbury 0-1 | 2 points

  6. Northern Districts: 0-1 | 2 points

Most Runs

  • Mikaela Greig: 123 runs @ 123avg/111sr

  • Georgia Atkinson: 107 runs @ 53avg/71sr

  • Felicity Robertson: 76 runs @ 76avg/62sr

  • Jess McFadyen: 68 runs @ 34avg/103sr

  • Jodie Dean: 61 runs @ 61avg/68sr

  • Natasha Wakelin: 59 runs @ 59avg/90sr

  • Josie Penfold: 58 runs @ 58avg/70sr

  • Polly Inglis: 56 runs @ 56avg/88sr

  • Prue Catton: 49 runs @ 49avg/51sr

  • Georgia Plimmer: 37 runs @ 18avg/78sr

Most Wickets

  • Emma Black: 7w @ 6avg/3.1rpo

  • Erin Bermingham: 4w @ 7avg/6.2rpo

  • Eden Carson: 4w @ 8avg/3.1rpo

  • Hannah Rowe: 4w @ 14avg/5.3rpo

  • Sarah Asmussen: 4w @ 17avg/4.3rpo

  • Gabby Sullivan: 4w @ 19avg/5rpo

  • Lucy Boucher: 3w @ 9avg/4rpo

  • Xara Jetly: 3w @ 11avg/4.7rpo

  • Claudia Green: 3w @ 12avg/2.7rpo

  • Nensi Patel: 3w @ 13avg/4.1rpo

While hearty veterans like Felicity Robertson, Jess McFadyen and Erin Bermingham all made impressive contributions over the weekend, the HBJ Shield season started with lots of youngsters offering value. This theme is evident across every team and while each HBJ Shield Notebook will dive deep into the recent action, the opening entry is here to highlight the abundance of young talent on display.

Auckland and Northern Districts provide a lovely starting point. Auckland is an intriguing outfit considering that their best young wahine could be more impactful that the young White Ferns in this group. Prue Catton (49 runs) and Josie Penfold (58 runs) were the only Auckland batters who scored 20+ runs, with Penfold also serving up 1w @ 3.5rpo with the ball. Penfold looks like one of the tallest players on the domestic circuit and she flashed her all-round talent in a strong start to the season.

Alongside Penfold in Auckland's bowling unit were Bree Illing (2w @ 8.4rpo), Amie Hucker (2w @ 3.7rpo) and 17-year-old leggy Rishika Jaswal (2w @ 2.6rpo). Illing is a lefty seamer who bolsters the growing crop of lefties around Aotearoa, while Hucker may be the best bowling youngster folks don’t know about. Jaswal tossed up her leggies slow and loopy which is always tricky for batters to deal with.

Auckland won this game thanks to their emerging players and minimal mahi from their more fancied White Ferns. While this will balance out over the course of the season, don't be surprised if one or a few of these youngsters settle down as Auckland's most important figures.

Same vibe for ND as young seamers Lucy Boucher (3w @ 4rpo) and Kayley Knight (3w @ 4.5rpo) had Auckland in a precarious position. Northern's best batter was Tash Wakelin (59 runs), that's 17-year-old Tash Wakelin who was ND's only batter to score 20+ runs.

ND have a grizzly line up of solid domestic batters in Nensi Patel, Caitlin Gurrey, Bernadine Bezuidenhout, Sam Barribal and Eimear Richardson. All of them looked befuddled by Auckland's bowlers though as Wakelin went about her innings and while the game was drifting away from ND, Boucher came in late to score 19 runs as she showcased her talent. Wakelin and Boucher were the only ND batters with strike-rates over 75, both scored at 90sr.

Central Districts's win over Canterbury featured 80-odds from Georgia Atkinson and Mikaela Greig. They were the only CD batters who scored 15+ runs and steered CD to their target of 208 from 48 overs. Atkinson is among the best scoopers in wahine cricket, capable of dabbing deliveries down the leg-side and opting for reverses that pepper the off-side. Greig had a strike-rate of 109 in CD's win followed 39 runs @ 118sr in the Sunday game which was washed out.

Greig isn't just the leading run-scorer, her overall strike-rate of 111 is the highest of batters who scored 30+ runs in the first weekend. Wellington wicket-keeper Jess McFadyen is the only other batter with 30+ runs and a strike-rate over 100, plus McFadyen's knock of 68 for Wellington takes her to a List-A average of 36.3 which stacks up nicely alongside these legends...

  • Amy Satterthwaite: 41.4avg

  • Suzie Bates: 44.3avg

  • Sophie Devine: 35.8avg

CD's young spinners Flora Devonshire and Ocean Bartlett both played against Canterbury but only bowled in the first game. Consistent opportunities in Central's 1st 11 for these two could offer strong development and they will benefit from bowling alongside Hannah Rowe, Rosemary Mair and Claudia Green.

Gabby Sullivan started this season with her regular dose of wickets, snaring 3w @ 4.8rpo in the loss to CD. Sarah Asmussen took 1w @ 4.9rpo in the first game and these two swapped their wickets for the Sunday game with Sullivan taking 1w @ 5.6rpo while Asmussen took 3w @ 3.5rpo. Sullivan was the best seamer in wahine domestic cricket last season and Asmussen's leggies are always a factor when Canterbury are in a groove, making them key emerging cricketers to track.

Canterbury also had Jodie Dean and Izzy Sharp as notable young batters to keep tabs on. Dean was the best performing Cantab batter with scores of 49 and 12* against CD, while Sharp started her campaign with 36 runs in the first game. Dean is 21-years-old and Sharp is 18-years-old, offering another team who had their youngsters scoring the most runs.

Otago had Emma Black taking 4w @ 1.2rpo and 3w @ 7rpo over the weekend, alongside 3w @ 2rpo and 2w @ 4.4rpo from Eden Carson. Black is the only HBJ Shield bowler with 5+ wickets from the first weekend which is bolstered by Otago playing two full games. Then again Black is building out a fantastic career record of 27avg in List-A and 20.6avg in Super Smash. As a mark of Sullivan's excellence, the Cantabrian Sullivan is a few notches better than Black with 22.2avg in LA and 16avg in Super Smash.

Wellington had Natasha Codyre opening the bowling in both games with 2w @ 4.6rpo and 1w @ 6rpo. The 20-year-old seamer is another youngster who should flourish with more opportunities this season. Xara Jetly has already settled into Wellington's 1st 11 across both formats and she was a crucial bowler in Wellington's win, snaring 3w @ 5rpo. Jetly is still only 22-years-old and has a LA average of 27 along with a Super Smash average of 14.6.

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Written by Scott Miller On Tagged ,