Bates, Heffernan stars for Sparks
A NEW star emerged to help the Otago Sparks win their first twenty20 women’s cricket title.
Seventeenyearold leftarmer Kate Heffernan took four for 21 to help her side seal a fiverun win against Canterbury in Rangiora on Saturday.
The Sparks posted 133 for six, thanks to a superb innings from the team’s leading player, Suzie Bates.
The White Ferns captain pummelled 74 from 52 balls and a bigger score appeared in the offing. But the home side rallied with a series of wickets and then made a solid start with the bat.
The turning point came when Heffernan, a year 13 pupil at St Hilda’s Collegiate, bowled the dangerous Amy Satterthwaite with a cracking delivery which swung in and clattered into middle and off.
Canterbury fell off the pace and was eventually restricted to 128 for eight.
Bates believes Heffernan is a star in the making if she chooses to stick with cricket. The teenager is also a talented netball player and was named in the New Zealand Secondary Schools squad earlier this month.
‘‘I think she is one of the [few] leftarmers in the country . . . I’m sure she has a bright future in the sport,’’ Bates said.
The Sparks last title came in January 2014, when the team beat Auckland in the oneday final. It was its first title in 51 years.
IT was experience and then raw talent which combined to give the Otago Sparks the domestic twenty20 title at Rangiora on Saturday.
The Sparks beat Canterbury by five runs in the final after making 133 for six wickets when it batted first.
In reply, Canterbury started well and was looking comfortable after passing 50 without loss.
But the home team slowly got behind in the run rate and when key batswoman Amy Satterthwaite went with the score at 82, the pressure went back on the hosts.
It folded and when it needed 15 off the last over, Sparks coach Warren Lees was comfortable his side would win.
‘‘I could watch this last over. Last time we played in a final I couldn’t,’’ he said
Leigh Kasperek bowled the over and although she bowled a wide, it was good enough to get her side across the line.
Lees said the win was great for the team and it came down to some solid allround cricket.
‘‘The fielding won us the game. It was fantastic. The girls just ran their socks off and things started going our way,’’ he said.
‘‘Once you put the pressure on them and they start losing wickets, then Satterthwaite got out, and they started to panic.
‘‘After we batted I thought we had enough. If we bowled well, put the pressure on them — we didn’t have to get Satterthwaite out, but just contain her — then I knew we had a chance.’’
Canterbury opener and captain Frances McKay had to retire hurt after she was hit on the thumb from a ball being returned from the outfield. She batted again but went in when only three balls were left.
When the Sparks batted, skipper Suzie Bates had led the way with 74 off 52 balls, hitting 38 runs in boundaries.
If anything, the Sparks lost their way when batting as they were near 80 after 10 overs but could not get much of a rollon in
the dying overs.
But youngster Kate Heffernan come to the fore with the ball.
The St Hilda’s Collegiate pupil took four wickets with her leftarmers, and tore up the Canterbury middle order.
She bowled Satterthwaite and then took two wickets in her final over. Lees said the youngster was extremely tidy and asked questions of the Canterbury batswomen.
Kasperek was also tidy as Canterbury got close but not close enough.
‘‘It makes all the hard work in the preseason worth it. Well, you don’t have to win anything. You just have to make progress and that is what we have done,’’ Lees said,.
The win backs up the oneday title Otago won two seasons ago.
Otago flew back to Dunedin on Saturday night.