Devine intervention in Blaze threepeat

Six-hitting skipper Sophie Devine’s rapid-fire 54 paved the way for the Wellington Blaze’s third consecutive national women’s Super Smash cricket title in a weather-reduced match at Wellington’s Basin Reserve.

Devine scored all but 27 of Wellington’s runs as they posted an imposing 81-2 in yesterday’s encounter, which was reduced to seven overs.

The newly appointed White Ferns captain struck five sixes and four boundaries in her 23-ball blitz to effectively put the match beyond the Auckland Hearts’ reach.

The Auckland Hearts – needing almost two runs per ball to clinch an improbable victory – managed just 45-4, in reply, giving Wellington a 36-run win.

Wellington batted first, looking to extend their unbeaten record this season.

Openers Devine and Rachel Priest jogged out to the middle, eager to get the game underway in the gloomy overhead conditions.

Devine had to watch from the nonstriker’s end as Priest clubbed three boundaries in the second over before she holed out on the final ball of the third over, having scored 14 off nine balls. That set the stage for Devine to turn on a one-woman batting clinic blasting three sixes in a 20-run haul in the fourth over.

She slugged another in the fifth, but should have been caught off the next ball, but the fielder dropped the ball, which rolled over the boundary rope. A video replay confirmed a four, rather than a six, but Devine made the most of her let-off by lofting the next ball for a well-struck six.

That sweet shot took her through to 54, off just 22 balls, but her comet-like cameo was over a ball later, when Auckland captain Anna Peterson pulled off a fine two-handed catch, running back, to give Bella Armstrong her second wicket.

Devine won the Game Changer Trophy for player of the match, and told Sky Sport it was ‘‘nice to contribute’’.