The Otago Sparks continued their winless run over the weekend, falling to two heavy losses to the Canterbury Magicians.
The Otago side is a young one, missing all its experience with the senior players away on national duty.
Otago had no answer to a Canterbury side which was crisp with the ball and excellent in the field.
On the first game on Saturday at Rangiora, Otago batted first and got off to a good start through Caitlin Blakely and Olivia Gain. But once Gain went, the side struggled to put a partnership together of any note.
Blakely had to stand down the other end and watch nine of her teammates get dismissed.
The middle order for Otago made no impact and Blakely nearly carried her bat before she was dismissed for 61, the last batsman to be dismissed.
Otago made just 118 off 45.2 overs and that was never going to be enough.
Canterbury set about its task with some purpose and was just two wickets down when it reached the target at the start of the 28th over.
Jacinta Savage made an unbeaten 52, while Allie Mace-Cochrane contributed with 38. Otago had a sniff at the start when Emma Black got the wicket of Kirsty Nation in the first over.
Yesterday, with the temperature again hot in Canterbury, the home team batted first and got 191, being dismissed in the final ball of the innings. Otago legspinner Sophie Oldershaw impressed as she took a five-wicket bag, grabbing five for 19 off 10 overs, including four maidens.
No-one dominated for Canterbury but it was always going to a tall order for the Sparks and they never got going in reply.
The side was dismissed for 72, with Ella Brown making 18 and Sophie Gray hitting 15. Extras tallied 11 and no-one else made it to double figures as the side limped through to the 35th over.
The Otago team just has two games left and will be hoping for a win.
It plays Wellington in two games on February 22-23 in Dunedin.
