Wellington Men's and Women's teams win Super Smash T20 tournament

In a really special day for Wellington cricket, both the men’s and women’s team representing the capital city of New Zealand won both the finals of the Super Smash T20 tournament. Both of the finals were played on Sunday and on the same venue, Basin Reserve Stadium in Wellington.

The teams were playing the finals of the Super Smash tournament on the 19th of January. And, owing to sheer coincidence, both the teams were facing their counterparts from Auckland. The Wellington Blaze (women’s team), won their record third consecutive trophy in the domestic circuit of New Zealand, while the men’s team, Wellington Firebirds, won their third trophy, first one after the 2016-17 season.

In the men’s match, the team from Auckland won the toss and put in the Firebirds to bat first. After a shaky start, all thanks to the fall of Michael Pollard, right in the 2nd over, the team started a slow recovery. By the end of the 6th over, they had lost 2 wickets and had managed to put up 49 runs on the board. After that, wickets kept falling at regular intervals, but the team managed to crawl to a total of 168 runs, at the end of their innings.

Now, it was the time for the bowlers to win the match for them. And, they delivered. With HK Bennett and LV van Beek leading the pack with three scalps each, they managed to stop the men from Auckland from reaching the target. The match was won by Wellington Firebirds, by a margin of 22 runs.

Rain interrupted the Women’s Finals

On the women’s side of things, the rain gods made the officials reduce the match to a 7-over per side encounter. Just like the men’s match, the women from Auckland won the toss and put in the Wellington Blaze to bat first. Leading the batting attack for the Blaze was SFM Devine who smashed a half-century off just 22 balls, before being dismissed.

Her inning boosted the total of her side to 81 for the loss of two wickets. The second inning, was just too easy for the bowlers, as they packed the Hearts for just 45 runs at the end of the 7 overs. Wellington Blaze maintained their winning streak of 10 matches from the round-robin stage and clinched the match by 36 runs.