Holly Huddleston, Jesse Prasad star as Auckland win Hearts against Magicians  

After a high in the last match against Central Hinds, Canterbury Magicians slumped to their maiden loss of the season in the ongoing Super Smash T20 falling 20 runs short against Auckland Hearts on Monday (January 11). With this win, the Hearts move atop the league table.



The credit obviously goes to the Hearts bowlers, who pulled of a stunning victory, despite the fact that Magicians were all placed in a position to win needing 42 runs in the last four overs with six wickets in hand. But four wickets within a space of eight balls including a two-wicket burst in an over from Jesse Prasad (2/28) changed the course of the game.



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Bella Armstrong removed the well-set Kate Ebrahim (31) caught by Prasad in the last ball of the 16^th over before the Indian-origin right-arm medium pacer dismissed Laura Hughes and Jacinta Savage in the 17^th over to bring the downfall.



Emma Kench fell to Holly Huddleston (3/8) in the next over for a duck before Kirsty Nation was short of crease a ball later to bring more misery for the Magicians. Although Gabby Sullivan hit a couple of boundaries in the penultimate over to change the outcome of the game but Huddleston polished off the tail in the first two deliveries of the final over to seal the deal for Hearts.



Magicians had an awful start losing openers Frances Mackay and Natalie Dodd within the powerplay. Experienced Amy Satterthwaite (32) and Ebrahim stitched together 58 runs for the third wicket but couldn’t capitalise on the platform.



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Earlier, Hearts rode on Armstrong (39), Lauren Down (33) and Saachi Shahri’s (30 not out) knocks to post 138/9 in 20 overs. They didn’t have the best of starts losing Anna Peterson and Katie Perkins with just 17 runs on board. For Magicians, KM Sims (1/23), Mackay (1/19) and Savage (1/21) took wickets.



Brief scores: Auckland Hearts 138/4 in 20 overs (Bella Armstrong 39, Lauren Down 33) beat Canterbury Magicians 118 all out in 19.2 overs (Amy Satterthwaite 32; Holly Huddleston 3/8, Jesse Prasad 2/28) by 20 runs.