Auckland, Northern Districts and Central Districts have three wins from their first four games while Otago have four losses to start their season of HBJ Shield cricket.

Auckland

Loss and win vs Canterbury | 3-1 | 1st | 14 points

Best Performers vs Canterbury - Saturday

Fran Jonas: 3w @ 6.4rpo

Sunday

Bree Illing: 4w @ 2.2rpo
Prue Catton: 60 runs @ 88sr
Brooke Halliday: 50* @ 71sr

Best Performers This Season

Prue Catton: 172 runs @ 57.3avg/84sr
Brooke Halliday: 104 runs @ 104avg/68sr
Maddy Green: 103 runs @ 34.3avg/66sr
Fran Jonas: 8w @ 16.3avg/4.8rpo
Amie Hucker: 7w @ 19.4avg/3.9rpo
Bree Illing: 6w @ 21.3avg/3.7rpo

Notebook

Catton is in her best season of HBJ Shield batting...

2023/24: 232 runs @ 21avg, 1 x 50
2025/26: 172 runs @ 57.3avg, 2 x 50

Catton now averages 22.1 in LA batting and has the highest batting strike-rate for Auckland this season.

Illing's wickets this season: 0, 1, 1, 4. She averages 26.2 in LA bowling.

Jonas' wickets in last 1 games: 2, 2, 2, 0, 0, 3, 3, 2, 3, 0. She averages 29.7 in LA bowling.

Northern Districts

Win and win vs Otago | 3-1 | 2nd | 13 points

Best Performers vs Otago - Saturday

Caitlin Gurrey: 71 runs @ 100sr
Marama Downes: 4w @ 2.6rpo

Sunday

Catilin Gurrey: 54 runs @ 67sr
Holly Topp: 51 runs @ 68sr
Kayley Knight: 3w @ 4.7rpo

Best Performers This Season

Caitlin Gurrey: 166 runs @ 41.5avg/71sr
Holly Topp: 107 runs @ 26.7avg/64sr
Natasha Wakelin: 101 runs @ 25.2avg/71sr
Lucy Boucher: 6w @ 12.8avg/3.6rpo
Kayley Knight: 6w @ 15.5avg/4rpo

Notebook

Gurrey’s scores in last 10 games: 19, 10, 112, 152, 49, 17, 24, 71, 54. She has a LA batting average of 36.85 and has averaged 40+ in five of her last seven seasons.

Topp's scores this season as wicket-keeper: 32, 20, 4, 51. She had her first LA 50+ score and vs Otago and is in her first season with 100+ runs and 20+ average.

Emerging seamers in LA bowling...

Lucy Bouncer: 27.12avg/4.9rpo
Kayley Knight: 21.91avg/5.3rpo

Downes' four seasons of LA bowling...

2022/23: 4w @ 51.5avg/5rpo
2023/24: 12w @ 22.16avg/4rpo
2024/25: 9w @ 41.77avg/4.7rpo
2025/26: 4w @ 24.75avg/3.1rpo

Central Districts

Loss and win vs Wellington | 3-1 | 2nd | 13 points

Best Performers vs Wellington - Saturday

Flora Devonshire: 3w @ 4rpo
Rosemary Mair: 2w @ 3.6rpo
Emma McLeod: 30 runs @ 75sr

Sunday

Emma McLeod: 139* @ 96sr
Cate Pederson: 51 runs @ 86sr
Flora Devonshire: 46 runs @ 67sr
Elizabeth Cohr: 8w @ 3.2rpo

Best Performers This Season

Emma McLeod: 208 runs @ 69.3avg/85sr
Cate Pederson: 110 runs @ 27.5avg/70sr
Kerry Tomlinson: 104 runs @ 26avg/81sr
Kate Gaging: 102 runs @ 34avg/70sr
Flora Devonshire: 98 runs @ 24.5avg/70sr | 5w @ 33avg/4.8rpo
Elizabeth Cohr: 8w @ 6avg/3.4rpo
Rosemary Mair: 7w @ 15.4avg/3.6rpo

Notebook

Georgia Atkinson, McLeod, Pederson and Devonshire are all 25yrs or younger and batting in the top four. Here's their LA batting mahi...

Atkinson: 21.28avg/67sr
McLeod: 28.93avg/69sr
Pederson: 18.11avg/58sr
Devonshire: 19.75avg/77sr

McLeod and Pederson have the highest batting strike-rates for CD batters with 10+ runs in HBJ Shield.

Cohr has 4 wickets in each of her first two games. Along with Ashtuti Kumar (5w @ 30.2avg/4.7rpo) and Devonshire (5w @ 33avg/4.8rpo), CD have three spinners with 5+ wickets already this season.

Mair has 2+ wickets in three of her four games and a wicket in every game to start this season.

Wellington

Win and loss vs Central Districts | 2-2 | 4th | 9 points

Best Performers vs Central Districts - Saturday

Rebecca Burns: 87 runs @ 84sr

Xara Jetly: 41 runs @ 67sr | 6w @ 3.9rpo

Hannah Francis: 40 runs @ 89sr

Sunday

Jess Kerr: 1w @ 4.4rpo | 32 runs @ 89sr
Jess Simmons: 2w @ 6rpo
Xara Jetly: 2w @ 5.4rpo | 19* @ 61sr

Best Performers This Season

Xara Jetly: 101 runs @ 50.5avg/53sr | 11w @ 15.4avg/4.5rpo
Rebecca Burns: 89 runs @ 44.5avg/81sr
Jess Simmons: 7w @ 18.7avg/5rpo

Notebook

Jetly leads Wellington for runs and wickets. She has LA mahi of 15.3avg/51sr and 21.7avg/4.2rpo. Here are her recent LA batting seasons...

2021/22: 13 runs @ 6.5avg
2022/23: 2 runs @ 0.6avg
2023/24: 34 runs @ 17avg
2024/25: 98 runs @ 19.6avg
2025/26: 101 runs @ 50.5avg

Simmons has 2+ wickets in three of her four games for Wellington and a wicket in every game this season. She had 9w @ 47.5avg last season for Canterbury and currently has the lowest average of her nine seasons.

Canterbury

Win and loss vs Auckland | 1-3 | 5th | 5 points

Best Performers vs Auckland - Saturday

Kate Anderson: 72 runs @ 76sr
Jodie Dean: 48 runs @ 84sr
Kate Irwin: 40 runs @ 85sr
Gabby Sullivan: 3w @ 2.5rpo
Sarah Asmussen: 3w @ 3.8rpo

Sunday

Izzy Sharp: 39 runs @ 76sr
Kate Irwin: 32 runs @ 54sr
Melissa Banks: 3w @ 3.1rpo

Best Performers This Season

Kate Anderson: 262 runs @ 87.3avg/96sr
Izzy Sharp: 103 runs @ 25.7avg/82sr
Jodie Dean: 101 runs @ 25.2avg/70sr
Gabby Sullivan: 7w @ 15.8avg/3.4rpo
Melissa Banks: 7w @ 19.1avg/4rpo
Sarah Asmussen: 6w @ 24.6avg/4.7rpo

Notebook

Anderson has the most runs and highest strike-rate in HBJ Shield. She is the only batter with 250+ runs and the only batter with a strike-rate over 85.

Anderson's scores in last 10 games: 45, 33, 33, 26, 118, 62, 171*, 1, 72, 18.

Emerging batters in List-A...

Izzy Sharp: 20.56avg/72sr
Jodie Dean: 23.16avg/65sr
Kate Irwin: 18avg/63sr

Sullivan has a LA bowling average of 26.2 . Her last two seasons of LA bowling...

2024/25: 7w @ 55.1avg/5.5rpo
2025/26: 7w @ 15.8avg/3.4rpo

Banks is in her first season of LA bowling averaging below 20 (19.14) and 4.04rpo is the lowest of her 10 seasons.

Asmussen's last three seasons of LA bowling...

2023/24: 14w @ 30.2avg/4.9rpo
2024/25: 12w @ 38.3avg/5.5rpo
2025/26: 6w @ 26.6avg/4.8rpo

Otago

Loss and loss vs Northern Districts | 0-4 | 0 points | 6th

Best Performers vs Northern Districts - Saturday

PJ Watkins: 3w @ 3.4rpo
Emma Black: 2w @ 3.2rpo
Anna Browning: 1w @ 7.3rpo | 44 runs @ 68sr

Sunday

Emma Black: 4w @ 3.7rpo
Anna Browning: 2w @ 3.2rpo | 39 runs @ 85sr
Best Performers This Season
Saffron Wilson: 129 runs @ 32.2avg/71sr
Polly Inglis: 110 runs @ 27.5avg/78sr
Anna Browning: 109 runs @ 27.2avg/70sr | 3w @ 34.3avg/4.6rpo
Emma Black: 8w @ 16.2avg/3.5rpo

Notebook

Browning averages 18.5 in LA batting and 26.8 in LA bowling. She has three 40+ scores in her last 10 games and five 20+ scores.

Black has a wicket in five consecutive games and averages 24.9 in LA bowling.

Inglis has three consecutive 30+ scores and her strike-rate of 78 this season is Otago's highest.

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Peace and love.