Rosemary Mair, Hannah Rowe star as Central Hinds beat Northern Brave in Super Smash 2021-22

Super Smash 2021-22.

Opting to bat first, Brave lost Lucy Boucher early when Claudia Green accounted for her in the third over and they suffered a big blow in the form of Brooke Halliday with Mair dismissing the Brave skipper for just one.

In the 12^th over, Mair struck twice to leave Brave reeling at 54 for five and they needed someone to stay with Caitlin Gurrey. Brave opener found some company in Holly Topp and the duo took the Northern District side to 87 with a 33-run stand.

The right-handed Gurrey attacked Jess Watkin hitting her for a six and two consecutive fours in the 14^th over. Even though Topp fell to Monique Rees, Gurrey brought up her tenth T20 fifty from 42 balls and then took her side over the three-figure mark. Hinds eventually finished their innings on 110 for seven from the stipulated 20 overs. Gurrey was the only player to reach double digits as she remained unbeaten on 58 off 50 balls.

For Hinds, Mair ended the spell with figures of three for 22 from her four overs, while Rowe bowled four frugal overs giving away only 13 runs.

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In the chase, Hinds had a rapid start with Emily Cunningham hitting three boundaries in the first three overs to take the score to 22. However, they lost Gemma Sims to an LBW at the other end in the fourth over. Once Cunningham hit one more boundary, Lucy Heaps struck again to remove Kerry-Anne Tomlinson.

Although Cunnigham and Watkin attacked from there adding four more boundaries – three of them came from Watkin, Nensi Patel removed both of them in quick succession and Halliday chipped in with the wicket of Mair to leave Hinds struggling at 61 for five in the 11^th over.

From there, Mikaela Greig hit Patel for a four in the next over and shared a sedate, but solid partnership with Rowe. The duo added 35 runs for the sixth wicket with Rowe hitting two boundaries. At the end of the 18^th over, Hinds needed 13 runs, having just lost Greig for 17.

Despite a boundary from Georgia Atkinson, only five runs came from the penultimate over, leaving Hinds to get eight runs from the final over. Rowe took a single from the first ball and then Atkinson hit Charlotte Sarsfield for a boundary in the second delivery and got Rowe the strike back with a bye in the third. The 25-year-old allrounder finished the match in style when she hit Sarsfield for a four in the fourth ball.

For Brave, Heaps and Patel took two wickets each, while Halliday and Sarsfield picked one wicket apiece.

Brief Scores: Northern Brave 110/7 in 20 overs (Caitlin Gurrey 58*, Rosemary Mair 3/22) lost to Central Hinds 113/6 in 19.4 overs (Emily Cunningham 28, Hannah Rowe 27*; Nensi Patel 2/20) by four wickets