Coach wants consistency from Sparks

Haley Jensen. PHOTO: ODT FILES
Haley Jensen. Photo: ODT Files
The Otago Sparks are playing the kind of cricket they want to be playing — most of the time.

The side is coming off an impressive win against Auckland at Eden Park Outer Oval on Monday.

Suzie Bates led the way with 76 off 59 balls, and Kate Ebrahim made 45 not out and grabbed three wickets in a quality performance as well.

The pair combined for their second century stand of the campaign.

They run between the wickets well and they look to score their runs in different areas.

Bates crashes most of her runs into the legside and Ebrahim has a strong offside game and hits down the ground well.

It is a critical partnership for the Sparks and one that is operating smoothly.

A little too smoothly perhaps. Their success has ironically created a few problems.

The talented middle order of Caitlin Blakely, Bella James, Felicity Leydon-Davis and even Hayley Jensen have not had much of a look-in, while top-order players Olivia Gain and Polly Inglis have not found their rhythm yet.

That has left the Sparks reliant on its star duo.

"We’ve just got to make sure we are smart at training and make sure that they are getting the volume [of batting].

"It is always great to have those partnerships, but the down side is you’ve got some quality players who have not had much time in the middle.

"But they are working really hard and when they get their opportunity — no problems, they’ll step up. They’ve got good form behind them, so they’ll be fine."

Gain posted back-to-back golden ducks in Queenstown, but showed her crisp hitting skills during a 15-run cameo in Auckland.

Inglis is struggling but coach Craig Cumming is confident she will come right.

"I just want her to relax her shoulders and be the Polly Inglis that we know. It is tough because when you’ve had a couple of failures, you get nervous and tense.

"But I just want her to go out and hit the ball and I’ve got no doubt she can do that."

The bowling unit is nicely balanced and has been working hard at increasing the amount of dots balls it bowls, while in the field Otago has improved but Anna Browning was dropped three times before she reached 20 in Monday’s game, so there is room for improvement still.

Overall, Cumming is happy with the progress of his team. But he wants to see greater consistency in performance.

"I think we are starting to get more awareness of how we are going to do that [score 150-plus], but there are still parts of it which we can get better at," he said.

"But it was a good display against Auckland and it showed once you get [a good score] on the board batting first, it puts a huge amount of pressure on the batting team and allows your bowlers to come into the game.

"They’ve got be more aggressive against us which creates more opportunities.

"They key for us now is consistency. ND is a very good batting side and we are going to have to be able to do that again."

Northern Districts hosts Otago at Seddon Park tomorrow. The sides met late last year in Queenstown and the Sparks prevailed by 20 runs.

Bates and Ebrahim put on an Otago record third-wicket stand of 128 to help he Sparks post 165 for three.

The Brave gave it the tally a decent nudge, but lost five wickets in the last three overs.

Otago swing bowler Emma Black will bring up her 50th T20 for the Sparks and spinner Eden Carson is closing in on the milestone as well. She is one game behind Black.

Super Smash

Hamilton, 6.50pm tomorrow

Otago: Suzie Bates (captain), Olivia Gain, Polly Inglis, Kate Ebrahim, Caitlin Blakely, Felicity Leydon-Davis, Bella James, Hayley Jensen, Eden Carson, Emma Black, Sophie Oldershaw, Gemma Adams, Molly Loe.

Northern Districts (possible): Bernadine Bezuidenhout, Eimear Richardson, Lucy Boucher, Sam Barriball, Nensi Patel, Amanda-Jade Wellington, Tash Wakelin, Carol Agafili, Phoebe Graham, Kayley Knight, Holly Topp, Marina Lamplough

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