Firebirds, Blaze make Wellington T20 capital
Wellington is the capital of Twenty20 cricket in 2020, with the Firebirds winning the men’s Super Smash and joining the Blaze, who made it three women’s titles in a row earlier yesterday.
The Firebirds held off the Auckland Aces at the Basin Reserve to claim their first title since 2016-17, putting runs on the board before steadily increasing the pressure with the ball.
Michael Bracewell and Logan van Beek scored 20 runs in the final over of the home team’s innings to take them from 148-7 to 168-7, a late flurry that proved crucial.
The Aces then lost wickets at regular intervals in pursuit of 169 and fell 23 runs short in the end, with van Beek taking three as well as a pair of brilliant boundary-line catches that helped restrict the visitors to 146-9.
Cachopa won the toss for the Aces and elected to chase, memories of Friday’s dramatic elimination final win over the Otago Volts fresh in his mind.
With five overs to go, the Aces needed 64 off 30 – a slightly more difficult task than the one they pulled off on Friday, when it was 60 off 30.
Guptill was playing a patient game, and brought up his half century off 45 balls, but the mountain in front of him was getting steeper.
Guptill moved to 60 with six in the 18th over, bowled by Bennett, but was caught by van Beek at deep mid wicket trying to go again the following ball, and that was it for the Aces’ hopes.
Van Beek had to chuck the ball up then step over the boundary and back in to remove Guptill and he repeated the effort to send Ben
Horne on his way for six two balls later.
Meanwhile 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 49 off 37, Tom Blundell 25 off 21, Michael Bracewell 23 off 17; Mitchell McClenaghan 3-32)
Men’s final: Wellington Firebirds 168-7 (Devon Conway
(Martin Guptill 60 off 53; Logan van Beek 3-28, Hamish Bennett 3-34)
beat the Auckland Aces 146-9
Rachel Priest 14; Bella Armstrong 2-23) beat Auckland Hearts 45/4 (Bella Armstrong 13; Leigh Kasperek 2/4) by 36 runs.
runs as they posted an imposing 81-2 in the 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 managed just 45 for four, in reply, giving Wellington a 36-run win and completing an unbeaten season with 11 wins.
by 22 runs. Women’s final: Wellington Blaze 81/2 (Sophie Devine 54,