After a season like no other, it all comes down to Sunday...
— WHITE FERNS (@WHITE_FERNS) March 19, 2021
🎩 @CanterburyCrick Magicians v ❤️ @aucklandcricket Hearts
Hallyburton Johnstone Shield Final | 10am | @edenparknz Outer Oval 🏏
See you there @BluesRugbyTeam + @crusadersrugby 🏉#HBJSHIELD #CricketNation #Cricket pic.twitter.com/yNSirNy8ej
The Canterbury Magicians and Auckland Hearts are the Hallyburton survivors after a big final weekend of the regular season.
The two teams will now meet again at Auckland's Eden Park Outer Oval - after top qualifier, the Canterbury Magicians, forfeited the hosting rights - on Sunday 21 March to decide this season's one-day champion in the last big white-ball match of the 2020/21 New Zealand Domestic summer.
After Canterbury took a tight 24-run win off the Hearts on Saturday, Sunday's rematch was an even tighter contest - with the Hearts taking the win this time, by just 10 runs, and this despite a record-breaking five-wicket bag to Canterbury captain Frankie Mackay and an outstanding knock of 96 from her teammate Amy Satterthwaite, as the Hearts managed to defend 216.
The split results at Outer Oval across the two games were a heartbreaker for the Central Hinds in New Plymouth who had meanwhile bounced back to beat Northern Spirit and would have gone through to the Grand Final themselves had the Canterbury Magicans chased down the remaining 10 runs in Auckland.
Instead they finished one point shy of qualifying, while Northern Spirit's last hopes had been dashed when the prospect of a possible bonus point victory vaporised.
