Kerr snares hat-trick
At a glance
New Zealand Cricket has a special talent in Amelia Kerr.
The 18-year-old White Ferns allrounder gave another demonstration of her quality, capturing a hat-trick in the Wellington Blaze’s eight-wicket thumping of the Otago Sparks in the women’s Twenty20 Super Smash at Lincoln, near Christchurch, yesterday.
Snaring a hat-trick would be the highlight of most cricketer’s careers, but the teen queen didn’t produce any wild celebration when she achieved the feat with a googly delivery. She simply ran over to her team-mates when Otago’s Ella Brown chopped onto her stumps to complete Kerr’s hat-trick.
Kerr bowled Otago wicketkeeper Polly Inglis in the 19th over to pick up her first wicket of the day. She then removed Australian import Lisa Griffith next ball, who lofted one to mid-off.
Kerr’s 3-23 from four overs helped restrict Otago to 113-7 from 20 overs.
‘‘I bowled a googly and was just trying to attack the stumps. When I saw where it landed I was hoping she was going to go back and play it like a leggy, which she did, so luckily I got the bowled,’’ Kerr said of her hat-trick ball.
‘‘I was pretty happy in generalglad I got some runs and contributed to the team. I just wanted to finish off the job.’’
Wellington almost had another hat-trick with fellow legspinner Deanna Doughty sending White Ferns Suzie Bates and Katey Martin on their way in successive balls. Another New Zealand international, Leigh Kasperek, kept out the hat-trick delivery, but then departed the next ball after being struck in front of her stumps.
Kerr showed she’s just as capable with the bat, hitting an unbeaten 46 from 39 balls, batting at No 4 to guide the Blaze to a comfortable victory with 13 balls left.
Defending champions Wellington sit tied for first after the first round of the T20 competition with Canterbury and Auckland, who also won both matches over the weekend at Lincoln.
Canterbury crushed Northern by nine wickets yesterday with White Ferns skipper Amy Satterthwaite belting 68 not out Round five scores:
Otago 113-7 (Polly Inglis 45, Lisa Griffith 40; Deanna Doughty 3-14, Amelia Kerr 3-23) lost to Wellington 114-2 (Amelia Kerr 46no, Rachel Priest 31no) by eight wickets.
Northern 104-5 (Katie Gurrey 51, Bernadine Bezuidenhout 34; Amy Satterthwaite 1-9) lost to Canterbury 105-1 (Satterthwaite 68no, Frances Mackay 32no) by nine wickets.
Central 91-8 (Mikaela Greig 39no; Bella Armstrong 3-18, Holly Huddleston 2-7, Roz Mcneil 2-12) lost to Auckland 94-3 (Sara Mcglashan 62no) by seven wickets.
Points after round five: Canterbury 14, Auckland 14, Wellington 14, Otago 10, Northern 6, Central 2.
from 48 balls.
The Auckland Hearts kept the Central Hinds winless, easing to a seven-wicket triumph.
Teenage medium-pacer Bella Armstrong did much of the damage with the ball, taking 3-18 to restrict Central to 91-8.
Holly Huddleston and Roz Mcneil both chipped in with two wickets with Mikaela Greig (39 not out) and captain Anlo van Deventer (24) the only Hinds to get past 20 with the bat.
Former White Fern Sara Mcglashan contributed an unbeaten 62 as the Hearts reached their target inside just 13.3 overs.
The women’s T20 Super Smash takes a break until December 22.
The women’s domestic oneday competition commences on November 17.