All-round Holly Huddleston helps Auckland Hearts humble Northern Brave in Super Smash

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All-round Holly Huddleston helps Auckland Hearts humble Northern Brave in Super Smash

Holly Huddleston © Getty Images

Auckland Hearts opened their campaign of the Super Smash 2021-22 with a 48-run win against Northern Brave at the Seddon Park in Hamilton on Friday (December 17). Some handy batting contributions from Lauren Down and Holly Huddleston along with a good bowling show helped Auckland register their first points, which now puts them right in the middle of the points table. 



Earlier in the day, Hearts won the toss and elected to bat first. After starting off well initially, Auckland lost the track of their innings with the wickets of Anna Peterson (14 off 11), Bella Armstrong (3 off 9) and Katie Perkins (7 off 7). At 53 for three, Huddleston joined Down in the middle in the ninth over as the duo tried to resurrect the innings. 



Together they put on 64 runs in 49 deliveries with Huddleston being the aggressor of the two. Down was eventually dismissed for 44 runs off 51 balls. Huddleston got to her fifty in the penultimate over with a six of the bowling off Nensi Patel. She was dismissed in the next over for her 54 runs from 34 balls. Her efforts were enough to push Auckland’s score to 142 for five. Brooke Halliday was the pick of the bowlers for Brave as she ended with figures of one for 19 from her four overs. 



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In reply, Northern Brave were never really in the chase. An opening spell from Arlene Kelly and Huddleston blew them away as both the players got two wickets each. Inside the power play, Brave were four wickets down with only 24 runs on the board. Beyond this, Sam Barriball’s 19-ball 13 and Makayla Templeton’s 25-ball 14 were the two contributions which were notably apart from Nensi Patel, who top-scored with 32 runs from 38 balls. 



But those knocks were not going to be enough to help Brave get anywhere near to Auckland’s total. They ended their innings on 94 for seven at the end of their 20 overs. Kelly added another scalp to her tally after the power play, ending with figures of three for 21 and was the pick of the Auckland bowlers. 



The two teams will now have a re-match on December 20, 2021 at the Kennards Hire Community Oval in Auckland. 



Brief scores: Auckland Hearts 142/5 in 20 overs (Holly Huddleston 54, Lauren Down 44; Lauren Heaps 1/16) beat Northern Brave 94/7 in 20 overs (Nensi Patel 32; Ariene Kelly 3/21, Huddleston 2/14) by 48 runs. 
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