Super Smash

We’ve been following the two Wellington teams, Blaze (women) and Firebirds (men), throughout New Zealand’s T20 competition, Super Smash. Both teams won last year, and are hoping to do a repeat this year as well. Each team plays the other five twice, once at home and once away. We’d missed a couple of games over Christmas as we were off doing the Milford Track, but were around for the later stages of the tournament, attending four of the matches.

The match format this year has been double-headers throughout, i.e. women’s and men’s matches on the same day. Some fixtures have put the women’s match first, others have put the men on first. This seems to have been dictated by whether the ground has lights to allow play in the evening as well as during the day. At the Basin Reserve, the women’s matches have gone first. The matches have all been at weekends, and attendance has been pretty good, especially for the Wellington Anniversary weekend, when there were matches on both Sunday and Monday. The weather has been reasonable as well – sometimes a bit cloudy, but none of the matches have been shortened due to poor weather conditions.

At the end of the round robin, the Firebirds were top of the table. This means automatic qualification for the final, and also that the final would be held in Wellington. The Blaze weren’t quite as successful, having topped the table throughout most of the competition; a couple of late losses knocked them down to third, and they went into the play-off against the Auckland Hearts to determine who would face the Canterbury Magicians. Fortunately they came through that with relative ease, and we therefore had a double Wellington/Canterbury final at the Basin.

It was a lovely day. Nicola had orchestra in the morning so wasn’t able to make it for the opening of the innings, but arrived shortly after. First up, the Blaze came out to bat. On what proved to be quite a difficult wicket they amassed a total of 125 – not a convincing display, and Sophie Devine in particular was playing far more cautiously than we’re used to seeing; this possibly due to the fact that her previous two innings hadn’t been quite as electric as we’re used to from her. Once she’d gone for 47, most of the remaining batters tumbled in quick succession, and no-one was able to put together a really good partnership. Melie Kerr held on until almost the end, finishing on 31, but lacked any support.

The Blaze started well in bowling to the Magicians, however, and for a while it looked like the game was in their hands. The required run rate was climbing higher and higher, hitting 13 at one point, and wickets tumbled with regularity – including a hat-trick to Melie Kerr in the 10^th over – but meanwhile, Kate Ebrahim began quietly building a total, and when she was joined by Lea Tahuhu it seemed the pair were immovable. Still, they weren’t on top of the run rate, until over 17, when Tahuhu started to let rip, with two sixes. Suddenly, the target looked eminently gettable, and Ebrahim helped out in the 18^th with successive fours. They needed nine off the last over, and when Tahuhu hit another six off the second ball, it was pretty well all over. A poor decision by the captain kept all the fielders on the boundaries with the score one behind, and four balls to go. They finished easily with a couple of singles, and took the title.

After a short interval, on came the Firebirds. They’d sown up their position at the top of the table weeks earlier, and it was only a matter of who their opposition would be. It turned out to be the Canterbury men’s team, the Kings. The Firebirds won the toss and decided to bowl. They took an early wicket, but then struggled to contain the Kings. Eventually they broke through in the eighth over, and then it was Canterbury’s turn to struggle, as they failed to make much progress in the middle overs. In Over 14 they lost two wickets to successive balls to Michael Bracewell, and managed to pick up the pace a little before stuttering to 175/8.

The Firebirds came in with a required run rate of 8.8, and put down a statement of intent with 14 off the first over. Losing two wickets in the third and fourth overs caused a bit of a stumble, but afterwards Devon Conway steered them along, making notable partnerships with Troy Johnson and Jimmy Neesham. It was my turn to leave early as I had a night tour at Zealandia, and at that point it was anyone’s game. But Conway batted on, almost reaching a century, and brought the total home with two balls, and five wickets, to spare.

So, one apiece. The Firebirds retain their dominance, but the Blaze have been knocked from their perch. 

Next up (hopefully) there’ll be international cricket, Covid permitting...as this all happened before the latest lockdown was announced. We’re still waiting to hear about a relaxation of the levels, but with two new cases today, any thoughts of moving back to Level 1 have been dampened somewhat.