Gurrey ton in big partnership, total and win

It may have been a dead rubber in the penultimate round of the national Hallyburton Johnstone Shield, but no one told Caitlin Gurrey - whose sixth century set up a colossal total, nor young Blaze allrounder Hannah Francis who responded with her own maiden ton.

It was just the fourth time in the history of the competition that Northern's women had produced a 300-plus total, and the second time a Gurrey century had been involved in it.

The first of those had been her magnificent, career-best 183 against the Hinds at Bay Oval a couple of years back.

Now she looked every bit as good as she slammed her way to 152 — the former WHITE FERN’s sixth List A century — against the Wellingtonians in a mighty Northern Districts total of 304/6.

After captain Jess Watkin has elected to bat, Northern initially stumbled as they lost early wickets to be 42/3 inside nine overs, but Sam Barriball's experience helped settle down the dust and take them to 128/4.

Gurrey then had another round of solid support from Nensi Patel, who helped her fashion a new all-time ND fifth wicket stand of 157, against a relatively fresh-look Blaze attack headlined by Jess Kerr.

The weather had produced fast outfields and batting paradises all over the country at the pointy end of the season, on a day that saw a slew of centuries.

The odds were always against Wellington Blaze chasing down 305, but they gave it a good nudge with a maiden century to 19-year-old allrounder Hannah Francis - who took her first ton to 115 off 131 balls, the highlight for the visitors in the 49-run loss.