Cricket: Northern Districts sneaks past Sparks

The Otago Sparks went down to Northern Districts in a one-day game at Lincoln yesterday.

Otago scored a competitive 249 for eight wickets off its 50 overs and Katey Martin scored a century.

But a poor period of bowling right near the end virtually handed the game to Northern Districts.

Otago had won the first of the one-day games between the sides easily on Monday by nine wickets but never looked in control yesterday.

It batted first after winning the toss but, apart from Martin, no-one went on with the job.

Martin came to the wicket with Otago two wickets down for 50 and she was unbeaten on 118 when the 50th over had been bowled.

She stood strong at one end, hitting 13 boundaries in her innings and scoring at better than a run a ball. Martin was helped by Morna Nielsen, batting at No9, who hit 32.

The duo shared a partnership of 75 and some good hitting at the end set a reasonable target of 250 for the opposition. Otago scored 71 runs in the final 10 overs to boost the score.

Kate Anderson bowled well for Northern Districts, picking up four wickets but it looked a tall order for the Northern side to chase.

It got off to a reasonable start and was never too far behind the run rate.

Opener Natalie Dodd and captain Brooke Halliday combined for a 137-run partnership for Northern Districts and when they were at the wicket the side always looked to be in control.

But they fell around the same time and the advantage went back to Otago.

Northern Districts slipped behind the run rate and needed 40 runs off the final eight overs and still needed more than 30 runs with three overs to go.

But nerves got to the Otago bowlers and the 48th and 49th overs went for a combined 32 runs.

That left Northern Districts just needing two runs off the final over.

It was bowled by Leigh Kasperek and batter Felicity Leydon-Davies hit the winning runs with three balls left, much to the disappointment of the Otago side.

Otago does not have a lot of time to recover before its next series of games.

It heads to Alexandra to play a twenty20 match against Central Districts and two one-day games against the same side, from January 2-4.

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