Wellington Blaze has joined Northern Districts in the coming Saturday’s Hallyburton Johnstone Shield national one-day final, at their home ground the Cello Basin Reserve.
Washouts in both Wellington & Mount Maunganui in Sunday's 10th round produced a frustrating end to the regular season, but not before Melie Kerr entertained with her career best century in this competition for Wellington Blaze.
After having missed out against the Hearts on the previous day - an Auckland win keeping them alive, and needing another in this Sunday game to bump out the Wellingtonians, Kerr made no mistake this time with a commanding knock of 128 off 122 balls.
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It was Kerr's seventh List A one-day century overall and third for the Blaze), underpinning the Blaze's strong total of 325/5 batting first.
They'd been sent in by Hearts captain Maddy Green who could do little but sit back and watch as Kerr took control from third drop, with opener Hannah Francis and number four Jess Kerr (below) also reaching half centuries.
Both supported the former Kerr in century partnerships and the result was the capital's third equal highest total in the history of the competition.
The Hearts needed to dig deep this time if they were to have a chance, and had reached 66/1 by the 12th over before rain not only foreclosed the match, but their season as the two teams split the points for a no result - enough for the Blaze to ink in the one remaining Finals berth.
The Hinds had already been bumped out of the running the day before, in a loss to Northern Districts as the Mount.
Now they came out firing with the ball after winning the toss and bowling in their final round, but they would also end up splitting the points with ND after rain washed out any hope of a chase.
The Hinds had brought in youngsters Aniela Apperley (1/48 off 10) and Grace Foreman (1/21 off four) for this match at the expense of Flora Devonshire and Lizzy Cohr, and each picked up a wicket.
But a costly drop at slip cost Rosemary Mair the wicket of Yaz Kareem early, the young ND batter having been under the pump against the WHITE FERNS seamer.
Mair's opening five-over spell conceded just 10 runs, with two maidens, but Tash Wakelin (ND's young captain for the day, with Jess Watkin sitting the match out) survived and went on to score 31 after she was joined by Caitlin Gurrey.
PHOTOSPORT
Gurrey has a strong record against Central at Bay Oval and top-scored with 72, Nensi Patel also chiming in with another half century this season.
A total of 254/6 meant Central would need just under a run a ball in reply, but after a promising morning, the wet weather returned at lunchtime and there would be further play as Central exited stage left for the season.
Northern Districts will carry on of course to the Final as runaway top qualifier to play the Blaze, having won eight of their regular season rounds with just one loss and now a No Result.
Meanwhile in the dead rubber in Dunedin, the Canterbury Magicians defeated ousted champions the Otago Sparks by 95 runs, rubbing salt into the Sparks' wounds by consigning them to the wooden spoon.
Retiring Sparks captain Felicity Robertson signed off with a knock of 40 in the chase but it was Canterbury opener Kate Anderson’s day, her strong season finishing with a 93 as she clinched the top spot in the regular season batting stats: 560 runs at a strong 70.00 average.
PHOTOSPORT
Anderson is the only player to have scored two centuries this season, with three half centuries as well, including a high score of 171 not out - the new Canterbury Magicians record highest score.
The Magicians signed off with back-to-back bonus point wins to get off the bottom rung of the ladder in a tough season in both formats.
POINTS after 10 of 10 rounds
Q1 39 Northern Districts
Q2 29 Wellington Blaze
25 Auckland Hearts
20 Central Hinds
15 Canterbury Magicians
10 Otago Sparks
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Scores, detailed results, points table, stats and livestreams are available here
- All matches including the Final are livestreamed on NZC YouTube
