Spirit stun Blaze in last-ball thriller
A boundary off the final ball of the match byMeddy Hyde secured the Northern Spirit a dramatic victory over the Wellington Blaze in the Super Smash game at Bay Oval in Mt Maunganui yesterday.
Hyde and diminutive batter Nensi Patel, who struck an important 25 runs off 18 balls before being run out with just three balls left, helped guide the Spirit to an upset win to end the defending champions’ unbeaten run in the T20 competition.
All the pressure was on new batter Hyde as she faced Jess Kerr, but she didn’t crack by calmly stroking the ball over the rope to ensure the Spirit won by five wickets.
Earlier, a fine knock of 50 runs off 46 deliveries from opening batter Kate Anderson provided some early excitement during the Spirit’s chase, but when she was bowled by Jess Kerr in the 15th over it appeared the ballooning run rate would be too tough to negotiate.
Instead, with wickets in hand and a desperate chase in the final overs, the Spirit prevailed.
In the first innings you could almost hear the alarmbells going ballistic when Amelia Kerr began surprise to the Spirit, who expected their opponents to have first crack on a featherbed pitch.
The Spirit may have suspected Kerr would be a dangerous operator – and if they did, they weren’t to be disappointed.
Kerr’s superb timing enabled her to stroke seven boundaries, despite the pitch offering little assistance; she relied on her eye-hand coordination and footwork to keep poking the ball into vacant territory as the defending champions logged 139-7 off their 20 overs.
It required a superb throw from the Spirit’s Alisha Rout to put an end to Kerr’s fun following a cover drive, with Brooke Halliday breaking the stumps to run out the Blaze’s top scorer.
Leigh Kasperek, fresh out of quarantine and needing to slap on the sunblock after being stuck in Scotland during a visit to her homeland, and opener Rebecca Burns each contributed 17 runs to the Blaze’s total.
The decision to ask Patel to open the Spirit’s attack with her medium-pace deliveries on the slow pitch was the right call, as she conceded only 17 runs off 4 overs.
But it was at the death where she made her most important, and critical, contribution for the Spirit.