2020/21
THE BIG THREE
Four teams, one Final, two spots. Someone's going to have a bummer of a Sunday night.
Just one point separates the Canterbury Magicians, Auckland Hearts and Central Hinds heading into the final showdowns. And, just to spice things up, the Mags and Hearts are playing each other up in Auckland where two strong teams splitting the points over the two games could play straight into the Hinds' hands.
The Central women are meanwhile down in their fave happy hunting ground of Taranaki, where they are hosting last year's shock finalist Northern Spirit - who head into the last two rounds this season a full 10 points adrift of the leading bunch.
THAT'S A BIG BONUS
Teams get four points for a standard win, and an extra point for a bonus win when they thrash the other side by so much that their net run rate is a whopping 1.25 times bigger than their opposition's.
With more disparity in player depth and experience across the women's Domestic landscape compared to the men's Domestic squads, the usual suspects tend to end up with the lion's share of the BP's in the HBJ. That tiny little detail is what's left the Hinds starting from third as they head into the penultimate ninth round, having missed out on a bonus against rivals the Magicians in the last match in Rangiora three weeks ago.
All three top teams have been earning their bonuses regularly - the Magicians and Hearts have taken BP's from five of their eight games, and the Hinds four. Those points add up in a tight contest like this. The Hinds will be well aware of the need not just to win on Saturday, but win big enough to remove that niggle margin on the points table, and a full-strength Spirit side is no walkover.
Leaders the Mags and Hearts meanwhile need to pull out a special performance if either is to take a bonus off each other. Just the kind of challenge that fires up the likes of Holly Huddleston and Amy Satterthwaite, Katie Perkins and Kate Ebrahim - although the Magicians will be disappointed to be without Lea Tahuhu for the big games after the fellow WHITE FERN injured her hammie against England.
METEOROLOGICAL MATTERS
It's been a rain-splattered week in the top half of the North Island and that would have had both the Magicians and hometown Auckland Hearts slightly on edge - not to mention the curve-ball preamble of a Level 3 Alert lockdown, which had thankfully reverted to Level Two in time for this crunch weekend and allowed a spot of training, even, before the top-of-the-table double showdowns. Level 3 would have seen points shared, leaving the Hearts vulnerable on net run rate.
In New Plymouth, wet weather obligingly swept across mid-week instead of ruining everyone's weekend plans, then stormed off quickly to go bother the Plunket Shield on the East Coast instead.
Wind might be up in town with fresh south-easterlies blowing through, but Pukekura Park is relatively sheltered in its historic little terraced dugout so it shouldn't create too many hassles for the bowling sides.
RUNS, RUNS, RUNS
She has the highest batting average in the one-day competition this summer so Natalie Dodd's absence this weekend (unavailable) is a big stats blow to the Hinds.
The graceful WHITE FERN has 248 runs at a healthy 124.00 this season, the average helped along by an unbeaten 108* among four red-inkers. The rock of her side, she's the leading runscorer for the Hinds but fifth overall. Here's the leaderboard:
- Canterbury Magician powerhouse Kate Ebrahim - 442 runs at 73.66 from 8 games
- Wellington Blaze's scorching Jess McFadyen - 371 runs at 61.83 from 8 games
- Breakout star of the season Brooke Halliday (ND) - 264 runs at 52.80 from 6 games
- Hearts rock Lauren Down - 254 runs at 50.80 from 6 games
- Dependable Doddy - 248 at 124.00 from 6 games
Ebrahim is the only player in the competition to have raised the bat for two centuries this summer, which keeps her in the frame to equal the Canterbury record of four in one season, shared by Satterthwaite and Frankie Mackay.
BOWLED HER OVER
Spinners are winners in the HBJ with the slow bowlers top of the charts. ND veteran Eimear Richardson has led the stats for her side with 16 at 15.62, followed by Magician Sarah Asmussen on 15 at 17.26.
Central Hinds vice-captain Jess Watkin is in third spot with 14 at a lean 11.92, her economy always a problem for batting sides, while Watkin's leg-spinning young teammate Georgia Atkinson and (now injured and out of action) Magician Jacinta Savage sit on 11 apiece.
Richardson has been super greedy, the only player with two four-wicket hauls, while Asmussen's 4-9 will go down as one of the best performances of the entire summer.
THE FRANKIE FACTOR
We could just say the Frankie Factory; either way the Mackay magic with both bat and ball is normally a KPI when it comes to the Magicians' season.
With just one century in the 20/21 HBJ so far, this has been a wee bit of an up and down campaign for the veteran with the bat by her own standards. Mackay is the Magicians' leading all-time runscorer with 4,577 (ahead of Satterthwaite's 4,317) and has heaps more hundreds than anyone else, having tonned up for the 13th time in one-dayers this summer with a whopping knock of 142 against the Otago Sparks (Satterthwaite next best on the tons list with seven).
That kind of statistical consistency is an obligatory mention and she'll be fired up to do the job for her side when it counts in a tough away battle with the Hearts. With the ball, the recalled WHITE FERN has also been trundling away for eight wickets at 21.00.
USUAL SUSPECTS?
The Canterbury Magicians, Auckland Hinds and more recently the Central Hinds are no strangers to one-day Grand Finals.
Having fought their way back handsomely from two humiliating losses to the Hinds at the start of the season, the Hearts are back looking like the defending champions that they are. Northern Spirit had a blinder last summer to host the 2019 Final, but the Hearts motored down the highway in their navy blue tanks and won anyway despite Northern's fine efforts.
That's just typical Hearts behaviour - they've won the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield four times in the last six years, and are always in the Final, so it will be a real stats turn-up if it's the Hinds and Magicians who get through on Sunday.
A stronger one-day side than they are in the shortest format, the Hinds hosted the Grand Final at Pukekura Park just two years ago and that was one of the few occasions that the Hearts walked off second-best.
It was a drought-breaker of a season for the Hinds but since the arrival of former ND player Dodd that season they have shaped as a very consistent one-day side - and their bowling attack this season has been better than ever.
With their WHITE FERNS Rosemary Mair and Hannah Rowe (the latter playing on Sunday only after her return from injury) back in the mixer, they could yet be hosting another Final at Pukekura in just over a week's time.
Canterbury meanwhile last won the one-day crown in 2016/17 when they edged runners-up the Hearts on points then beat them in the Grand Final at Hagley Oval after Katie Perkins and Kate Ebrahim traded unbeaten centuries.
They haven't made a one-day final since, but the new Dream11 Super Smash champions will be fired up to sort that one out over these next two days.
Buckle your seats.
