CD make aggressive start

Central Districts U15 batters Rosemary Mair and Monique Rees put together a 99-run opening partnership against Otago in their opening match of the national tournament at Victoria Park yesterday. Photo/Bevan Conley

The Central Districts U15 team made a strong start to their national tournament at Victoria Park yesterday by posting the biggest total of the teams batting first.

After the 2.15pm start to the Wanganui Festival of Cricket, CD's top order started aggressively against Otago U15 and laid the platform by scoring 173-6 from their 30 overs, setting a run rate of 5.80 for the southern team to have to chase straight off the bat.

CD coach, Hinds player and Wanganui captain Esther Lanser had singled out Hawkes Bay player Rosemary Mair as being one of the current crop who fit the Jessica Watkin mold as a promising player.

Mair lived up to that assessment by scoring 51 from 44 balls, including eight boundaries, before she had to be retired hurt.

The young opener had just finished representing the CD U21 women's team before the U15 tournament.

Monique Rees (37) and Claudia Jonasson-Bell (34) also played strong hands, as from a perch of 146-3 it appeared CD were in good position to smash a total well over 180.

However, Otago tightened up in the dying overs and picked up several key wickets to slow the run rate, with Georgia Heffernan finishing with four wickets for 33 from her six overs.

With yesterday's match and then two games each today and tomorrow, Lanser said the young players were going to find it a hard three days.

"But they're hardy CD kids - they're tough.

"We want the girls to just grow in their roles as cricketers."

Lanser said there was a lot of female talent within the region, which was being driven by 1-2 key players within each representative district.

In the CD catchment it was the likes of Abby Burrows as well as Wanganui's Watkin and Michelle Mitchell who were standout players and had to work with friends and team mates to bring others up to their level, she said.

In the other games at Victoria Park, Canterbury U15 took to the field as the only team wearing non-white colours and the girls in red posted a challenging 168-7 for Northern Districts to try and haul in.

There were contributions throughout the order, with opener Isla McKenzie providing the biggest score with 36.

In the third match, Wellington U15 were more pinned down by Auckland, and had reached 106-6 by the 29th over.

Otago, Northern Districts and Auckland were all beginning their innings at press time.

Today, the morning games see Otago take on Auckland, Canterbury against Wellington, and CD vs ND.

Over at a very windy Collegiate ground, Watkin and her Wanganui U15 team were having a tough time of it against a combined Canterbury/Nelson team in the Secondary Districts tournament.

In the 40-over game, no Wanganui player reached 20 as they had collapsed to 69-8 by the drinks break, with the last two wickets falling after the resumption for no more runs on the board.

Christchurch bowler Katie Morris cleaned up the tail and took five wickets for six runs from her 4.2 overs.

Wanganui did pick up an early run out in the second over, but had a lot of work to do to restrict the visitors from their meagre total.