The Southey Sayer Wairarapa Korus overcame a late cancellation and two days of rain disruptions but still returned from Nelson with two valuable wins in the Central Districts women’s championship.
The Korus were to fly to Blenheim on Friday to play Marlborough in a friendly before travelling to Nelson for the Shrimpton Trophy doubleheader, but their flight was cancelled on Thursday night, resulting in a frantic scramble to rearrange flights to Nelson.
The weather then did its best to disrupt the two 40-over games, but there were enough periods of clear weather for play to go ahead, and the Korus came away with two four-wicket wins, chasing low totals – 126 on Saturday and 83 on Sunday.
The Korus won the toss and bowled first in both games, with the aim of putting pressure on the home side’s batters and nullifying the impact of their Central Hinds medium pacer Claudia Green, and the plan paid off, reckoned coach Simon Roseingrave.
“We identified Claudia as their main weapon, so we wanted to try to limit their runs and take their main strike bowler out of the equation, and I do believe that worked. She bowled pretty well against us but didn’t have enough runs to play with,” Roseingrave said.
“We bowled and fielded well; we only spilt one catch over the two days, which was really good, and we just kept the pressure on them on a ground that’s a first-class international venue, and the outfield was slick, so if you got it through the field, it was a boundary so to restrict them to 126 and 83 were really good efforts.”
Roseingrave was disappointed, though, that the Korus didn’t ram home their dominance and win by seven or eight wickets.
The Hinds pair of Melissa Hansen, with an unbeaten half-century, and Georgia Atkinson were the only two players to reach double figures on Saturday, while captain Ocean Bartlett starred on Sunday with 25 not out.
Roseingrave stressed the lack of batting depth is an aspect that needs to be rectified.
“Mel batted very well for her 56 and Georgia for 37, but 93 runs out of 130, there wasn’t much contribution from others, and then on the next day, we sort of muddled through to win as opposed to really putting our foot on the throat.
“We want to be a team that dominates when we go out to bat, but we’re struggling to do that still, and we rely on one or two players.”
Bartlett highlighted her all-round capabilities, taking seven wickets [3–19 and 4–24] over the two days.
The Korus’ next outing is a doubleheader against Manawatū and Taranaki on the weekend of January 13–14.
BRIEF SCORES
Saturday – Nelson 126 [Carley Englefield 22, Ann Gaging 27, Ella Ranson 25; Ocean Bartlett 3–19, Georgia Atkinson 2–4, Chichi Beck 2–10] lost to Wairarapa Korus 130–6 [Melissa Hansen 56no, Atkinson 37] by four wickets.
Sunday – Nelson 83 [Liz Cohr 2–11, Bartlett 4–24, Jess Monk 2–12] lost to Wairarapa Korus 84–6 [Bartlett 25no] by four wickets.
