Anna Peterson, Holly Huddleston star in Auckland Hearts' clinical win

Put into bat, Hearts lost an early wicket in the form of skipper Lauren Down when Emma Black trapped her in front of the wicket for a duck. Peterson and Katie Perkins added 37 runs for the second wicket in quick time. The pair smashed eight boundaries in the power play to take the score to 49 for 1 at the end of the sixth over.

However, Eden Carson struck twice in her consecutive overs to send both the set back to the pavilion with the score reading 66 for 3. Although Bella Armstrong scored 19, Hearts soon found themselves at 91 for 5 at the end of 14 overs.

Huddleston hit Gemma Adams for a couple of sixes during her knock of 23 from 17 balls before getting out in the same over. Post Huddleston’s dismissal, Hearts lost a flurry of wickets and were bowled out in 18.1 overs for 123.

For Sparks, Black was the most impressive of the bowlers with figures of 4 for 14 from 3.1 overs.

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In reply, Huddleston gave Hearts an early breakthrough when she castled Polly Inglis for one. Sparks lost one more wicket in the power play with left-arm spinner Fran Jonas accounting for Bella James.

Post power play, despite occasional boundaries from Katey Martin, Sparks struggled to keep the scorecard moving and could score only 53 for 2 in 11 overs. Once Millie Cowan was run out in the next over, Sparks lost wickets in a cluster to be reduced to 66 for 5 with Armstrong and Peterson taking one wicket each.

Even though Martin smashed Armstrong for a four and a six, she was dismissed for 44 by Jonas in the 17^th over. From there on, it was a steep ask for the Sparks’ lower-order batters and soon they were bundled out for 96 in 19.4 overs.

Peterson finished with figures of 3 for 23, while Huddleston was at frugal best giving away only eight runs from her 3.4 overs to take two wickets.

Brief Scores:

Auckland Hearts 123/10 in 18.1 overs (Anna Peterson 31, Holly Huddleston 23, Katie Perkins 23; Emma Black 4/14, Sophie Oldershaw 2/21) beat Otago Sparks 96/10 in 19.4 overs (Katey Martin 44; Anna Peterson 3/23, Holly Huddleston 2/8) by 27 runs.