Ella Southey, right, will head the Korus’ seam bowling attack. PHOTO/HBT
CRICKET
CHRIS COGDALE
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A severely depleted Southey Sayer Wairarapa Korus will play Wellington A in the second round of the Lower North Island women’s cricket quad series on Sunday.
Central Hinds commitments, university studies, and injuries have robbed the side of seven players who played the last Mike Shrimpton Trophy match against Wanganui in January.
Regular captain Melissa Hansen, medium pacer Monique Rees, and spin bowler Georgia Atkinson are in the Hinds’ squad to play the Canterbury Magicians in two matches at Pukekura Park, New Plymouth in a last-ditch effort to successfully defend the Hallyburton-Johnstone Shield.
To make the final, the Hinds must win both games on Saturday and Sunday and hope that the Northern Spirit, who will host the final, beat the Auckland Hearts in their two matches.
In-form allrounder Kate Sims and fast bowler Hattie Vincent have started university studies, off spinner Macy Lyford is injured, and medium pacer Olivia Roseingrave is unavailable.
Despite that, Korus’ coach Simon Roseingrave said there’s still a reasonable core of talent within the team.
“Eleven of the 12 have played for the Korus at least once this season and a few of them are in pretty reasonable form,” he said.
“Sian Wheeler is the only debutant. She’s a young medium pacer from Wairarapa College [Year 11] and is very good in the field.”
Kayarna Jones-Dennes, who played for the New Zealand Maori secondary schoolgirls team against the Australian Governor-General’s XI yesterday, will captain the Korus in Hansen’s absence.
Roseingrave is not certain what to expect from a Wellington side who were convincingly beaten by Taranaki in the first round on February 2.
“We don’t know who’s turning up for them. It all depends who is named in their Blaze side [for the Hallyburton-Johnstone Shield].
“If it’s very similar to the team that lost to Taranaki, who we easily beat in the Shrimpton Trophy, and if we perform even though we’ve got a younger side, we should be okay,” he said.
“We don’t come up against these players very often. We’ve played some in their age group sides and they have two or three handy players, so it should an interesting fixture.”
Wairarapa won their opening match of the series against Manawatu and a win would set up a potential championship decider against Taranaki in New Plymouth in three weeks.
The match will start at 10.30am on Sunday at Queen Elizabeth Park Oval.
Wairarapa Korus to play Wellington A:
Kayarna Jones-Dennes [captain], Caitlin Elliott, Elizabeth Cohr, Ella Southey, Emma McLeod, Gemma Sims, Gracie Donaldson, Jessica Roseingrave, Ocean Bartlett, Olivia Clark, Sian Wheeler, Tahlia Jones-Dennes.
