Watkin guides Central to title

WGP 23Dec15 - SKIPPER: Jess Watkin enjoys the spoils after captaining her Central Districts team to win the national Under-21 women's cricket title. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

Talented Whanganui cricketer Jess Watkin has led her Central Districts Under-21 side to national glory after an emphatic win over Canterbury on Monday.

Seventeen-year-old Watkin captained the side to a 78-run win after they bowled the Canterbury girls out for just 92 with three balls remaining in the Twenty20 match in Auckland.

CD lost the toss and were put into bat by Canterbury and Taranaki's Mel MeGaw set the innings alive with a quick-fire 36 off 18 balls including four 4s and two 6s. Hannah Rowe (Manawatu) played a well-timed unbeaten innings, scoring 52 off 36 balls and was well supported by Rosemary Mair (Hawke's Bay) 23. Canterbury were bowled out for 92. With Taranaki bowler Emily Cunningham doing the damage taking 4-10-2 and Melissa Hansen (Wairarapa) 2-4-2.

Three CD players were named in the paper tournament team and they were MeGaw, Hansen and Rowe.

Allrounder Watkin was disappointed with her batting during the tournament and her bowling in the final where she went for 5.25 runs an over. However, during the competition she averaged 2.5 an over.

CD U21 manager and White Fern Kate Broadmore said Watkin had done a grand job as skipper and played a vital role in her side's first national win.

"Jess was pretty economical with the ball through most of the competition and her captaining skills were solid," Broadmore said yesterday.

"For one so young Jess has a great cricketing knowledge and experience and was named skipper on the strength of that. With development in mind she was an obvious choice and didn't let us down. She makes most of the decisions herself when the girls are out in the field, although at times she may ask what others think. Being captain of the Hinds [CD regional team] I was able to help by running a few ideas with Jess and that helped," Broadmore said.

Watkin has also been in the Hinds squad for the past few seasons and joins that team in Christchurch next week for round two of the national first class competition to be followed the week after by round three in Alexandra.

"I'm looking forward to that. Iwasn't that happy with my batting performance in the U21 competition, but my bowling was okay and felt comfortable as captain. Hopefully we play well in Christchurch and Alexandra. I'll have a little bit of time off on Christmas day, but will try and get some practice in before heading south," Watkin said in Whanganui yesterday.

CD is sitting second on the first class one-day table behind Wellington and fourth equal on the Twenty20 table.

"We finished third on the one-day table last season," Broadmore said. "We lost a number of key players in the last three years and have been in a rebuilding phase. I expect us to be finalists this year."

There are two more rounds of the first class competition remaining after Alexandra.