Young Hinds side remains in the hunt

CRICKET: Purely by the numbers, this season isn’t going well for the Central Hinds.

They’re last in both major competitions, winning just one out of six oneday games and one out of three twenty20s.

But, cold statistics tell only half the story of where the women’s team is at.

Many of the players were in the Central Districts Under-21 team that stormed to victory in the pre-christmas age-group tournament on the back of an extraordinary performance from hard-hitting allrounder Jess Watkin, including a rare double hundred.

Watkin is part of the Hinds’ squad in Palmerston North this weekend for the triple-header against the high-flying Auckland Hearts. The teams play a twenty20 game and two one-day matches.

The Hearts are atop the 50-over table, after three rounds out of five, and are second in the shorter format after three games.

Hinds’ coach Jamie Watkins said Watkin has gone well in senior women’s matches too.

‘‘In the last month she’s certainly been in a rich vein of form. The key for her is [converting] those starts, the pretty quick 20 or 30 into 100 or 80.’’

Although the Hinds are out of the running for the 50-over competition, this year’s twenty20 season has another seven games to go, so they have it all to play for today.

And they’ll take confidence from a win against Northern Districts before Christmas.

‘‘We’re pretty keen to continue our development. We’ve got a very young side and had five retirements from last year’s squad.’’

Disappointingly, one of the Hinds’ more experienced players, Palmerston North allrounder and White Fern Hannah Rowe, the team’s vice-captain, was yesterday ruled out with a finger injury.

She’s yet to pick up a bag of wickets, but scored 40 not out in the side’s last match against Canterbury.

Watkins tipped young legspinner Georgia Atkinson, from Wairarapa, as one to watch. She relies on the conventional leg break and a topspinner, but was learning quickly, especially considering the 17-year-old only began playing cricket a couple of years ago.

‘‘She was pretty raw, but she’s become someone who bowls for us at key times.’’

All games are at Fitzherbert Park, Palmerston North. The twenty20 game starts at 3.30pm today and the one-dayers 10.30am tomorrow and 10am on Sunday.