Cricket: Ton-up Nensi has White Fern dreams

Nensi Patel showcased a wide array of strokes in her school's nets for the Bay of Plenty Times. Photo/George Novak

Tauranga Intermediate all-rounder Nensi Patel's sparkling 104 not out against Whakatane Intermediate in the Active Shield has tongues wagging all over town.

Coming in a 20-over knockout match to decide the Bay of Plenty intermediate girls' champions, the innings, by all accounts, amounted to a savage attack on outclassed and overmatched girls struggling to comprehend what was happening.

Nensi knew, and evidently had her sights set on three figures early on.

"After my 50 I thought I could score 100," she said with a sheepish grin at her school's nets last week.

Nensi moved from India with her family as a child and began playing the game at Tauranga Primary School in Year 4.

She know finds herself under the watchful eye of Bay of Plenty men's coach Ben Williams, has a "Future Knights/Spirit player of the month award" for her performances for the Bay of Plenty Junior Secondary Girls at a Northern Districts Junior Secondary Tournament, and is easily good enough to make the intermediate's top team alongside the boys.

She was ineligible to play in the school's New Zealand Cup team - girls can get dispensation to play only if a school is struggling to fill the team with boys - but her coaches are doing everything they can to make sure her development is not stunted by playing too often against weaker opposition.

She plays with boys at weekends - often retiring when she reaches 30 - and was last year a member of the top Western Bay of Plenty primary school side.

She bowls too - spin and pace - and has, on more than one occasion, influenced matches with the wicket-keeping gloves.

Nensi dreams of being a White Fern and has a younger sister, Prachi, who is also tipped as an exciting talent.

The school has not captured a national girls' title since Black Sticks women's player Gemma Flynn was in the Active Shield side in 2002.

The school, and Nensi, are waiting to hear which opponent they will come up against next, but that match may not be until the fourth term. Watching Nensi bat in the school's nets, hands gripped down the handle as she pumped balls wherever she was instructed while a photographer snapped away, one got the feeling that this polite, smiling little girl's potential knows no bounds.