Howick Pakuranga win Pearl Dawson Trophy 2022/23

In the first premier finals event of the season, the top three Premier Women’s teams battled it out at Lloyd Elsmore Park on Sunday for a chance to win the Pearl Dawson T20 Trophy.

Coming off the back of a strange season where 4 out of the 10 rounds were abandoned because of Auckland’s adverse weather this summer, the table ended up being topped by Howick Pakuranga, who had to wait to see what opponent they would face out of Auckland University and Cornwall.

It ended up being the experience and class of Cornwall that won out over Uni, teeing up a 3pm final with one of their great rivals.

Both teams sported a wealth of HEARTS players and experience and it was really anyone’s guess who would come out on top.

Cornwall got first use of the conditions when they won the toss and elected to bat.

The pitch perhaps wasn’t as flat as they had expected and they quickly came unstuck against the might of the stacked Howick Pakuranga pace attack, consisting of three domestic representatives in Josie Penfold, Marama Downes and Amberly Parr.

The top three were quickly accounted for and it was up to Katie Perkins to unfurl one of her patented rescue jobs. This time, for the first time in a while, she just couldn’t pull it off and when she fell for 12 to Parr, the rest of the team followed.

Their total of 90 was bolstered by 20* from captain Claire Crooks. Penfold, Downes and Parr shared 8 wickets with the other 2 going to young and upcoming allrounder Ayaan Lambet.

Cornwall would have rested of the hope that their HEARTS pacers Breearne Illing and Amie Hucker could run through the Howick Pakuranga top order, but Saachi Shahri and Radhika Patel had other ideas, tallying up a 50-run opening partnership that all but decided the outcome of the match.

Wickets tumbled in a miny collapse of 5-17 as Hucker and Anika Todd counterpunched, but by the time Penfold and Parr managed to steady the ship and stop the rot, the match was done and dusted with Howick Pakuranga as the Pearl Dawson champions for 2022/23!

Howick Pakuranga 92/5 beat Cornwall 90 (Amberly Parr 3/16) by 5 wickets

SCORECARD

March 14, 2023