The Otago Sparks upset the Spotlight Reporting Wellington Blaze in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield Grand Final in Queenstown - lifting the title by 138 runs.
The Blaze had gone into Sunday's Queenstown showdown without having lost a match all season, in a rematch between this season's Dream11 Super Smash finalists.
The winning streak ended as the Sparks upset the Blaze with a dominant all-round performance in a 138-run victory, Eden Carson walking off the park with the best bowling figures in the history of national women’s one-day finals.
Sparks captain Kate Ebrahim was instrumental in putting a competitive total on the board after she won the toss and elected to bat at a fine John Davies Oval.
The veteran opening batter held the fort, batting into the final over of the innings for the Sparks’ top score of 92 after sharing a century stand (103 off 157 balls) with Caitlin Blakely for the second wicket.
Blakely was the first of the pair to go past 50 en route to a knock of 52 off 87 balls, before a brace of wickets from Blaze youngster Kate Chandler gave the Wellingtonians an opening to fight back with wickets.
Chandler finished with 3-30 and Xara Jetly was in thick of the action as well with two wickets and a hand in two runouts - which proved to be Ebrahim’s downfall off the first ball of the last over, when a century was in her sights.
The Sparks reached a good total of 220/9 despite just three batters reaching double figures. No stranger to winning titles, Ebrahim’s cricket nous and calm authority was on show again as she then marshalled the young Sparks attack to a stunning victory — Blaze crumbling to 82 all out in just 28.5 overs, and 17 extras the chief contributor to the sorry scorecard.
Harriett Cuttance — making a dream one-day debut and opening the bowling with Emma Black — had her maiden wicket in her very first over when Rebecca Burns edged behind and keeper Polly Inglis dived, stuck out her right glove and held a special catch.
Black (who went on to a fine 3-13) also did early damage at the top with two big wickets to have Blaze 23/3 — and from there the Sparks just got better and better with every wicket.
Eden Carson came on in the 10th over when Jetly and Blaze captain Thamsyn Newton were trying to rescue their side from a difficult position of 30/4 — the Sparks having been 30/1 at the same stage in their innings.
Carson began with a maiden over to Jetly, then followed up with a wicket maiden as she trapped her at 32/5. A couple of overs later she had Newton cheaply as well; bowled another maiden to Maneka Singh for the 18th; then had Olivia Boivin caught behind in the 20th at 54/7.
A slick return catch had Singh walking back at 63/8 in another wicket maiden, then the catch of the match sealed Carson’s maiden one-day five-wicket bag in the 26th over — yet another wicket maiden — as Tash Codyre lobbed up a chance and Marina Lamplough raced to her left and held a one-handed diving 'speccy' to push Blaze to the brink of defeat.
Carson, who already has a bag for the Sparks in the T20 format, finished with 5-17 off her 10 overs, including five maidens, before Sophie Oldershaw sealed the victory.
Article added: Monday 28 February 2022
