Northern Brave vs Auckland Hearts, WSS_T20, Today Match Prediction 26 December 2024

NBW-W vs ADH-W Match Prediction & Analysis

After New Zealand Women triumphed in the 2024 Women's T20 World Cup in the UAE earlier this year, there remains a real feelgood attitude around women's cricket in the country.

No doubt this tournament will provide the platform for players with aspirations of getting to the national level as well as for some of those White Ferns who surprised many pundits across the globe when they went all the way a couple of months ago.

The Women's Super Smash is always a high quality tournament which combines the national players with some emerging players, the latter particularly keen to make an impact.

Fasten yourselves in, this promises to be another excellent edition of the competition.

RECENT PERFORMANCE

NBW-W

ADH-W

HEAD TO HEAD

TEAMS PREVIEW

Northern Brave Preview

Although they finished in second place across the group stage of the 2023/24 Women's Super Smash, Northern Districts Women finished the campaign in the worst form of any of the sides, failing to win any of their final three games.

In fact, they only won one of their final five matches and skipper Brooke Halliday will be keen to arrest that momentum early on in this campaign and get off to a winning start.

Felicity Leydon-Davis was a real threat with the ball from start to finish of the 2023/24 season and we expect her, along with Natalie Edwards to take the new ball. With the bat, Caitlin Gurrey and Natalie Dodd will open with instructions to 'tee-off' from the first ball to get the team off to a flyer and put the opposition bowlers off their stride.

Northern Brave Predicted Playing XI:

Caitlin Gurrey, Natalie Dodd (wk), Hayley Jensen, Brooke Halliday (c), Nicola Hancock, Felicity Leydon-Davis, Kate Anderson, Kerry-Anne Tomlinson, Emma Parker, Alisha Rout, Natalie Edwards

Northern Brave Actual Playing XI:

Caitlin Gurrey, Tash Wakelin, Yasmeen Kareem, Eve Wolland, Jess Watkin, Nensi Patel, Holly Topp, Carol Agafili, Marama Downes, Shriya Naidu, Amanda Jade Wellington

Auckland Hearts Preview

It was a fine performance with both bat and ball from Auckland Hearts when they last came up against Northern Districts and captain Victoria Lind will be reminding her team-mates of all of that ahead of this opener.

The star performer in that game was Anna Peterson who opened the batting and the bowling on her way to a Player of the Match display which included 42 unbeaten runs and bowling figures of 4/11!

However, they are far from a one-person team and we expect Holly Huddleston to cause problems with the new ball and Sara McGlashan to be the most aggressive batter in the number three position.

Auckland Hearts Predicted Playing XI:

Anna Peterson, Victoria Lind (c) (wk), Sara McGlashan, Katie Perkins, Sam Curtis, Lauren Down, Georgia Guy, Holly Huddleston, Arlene Kelly, Lucille Matthews, Roz McNeil

Auckland Hearts Actual Playing XI:

Bella Armstrong, Lauren Down, Maddy Green, Prue Catton, Saachi Shahri, Brooke Halliday, Josie Penfold, Isabella Gaze, Bree Illing, Fran Jonas, Molly Penfold

PITCH AND WEATHER CONDITIONS

Weather Conditions

The weather forecast is not too kind for Hamilton ahead of this game with thundery conditions predicted. There will be high humidity from start to finish and a strong chance of rain across the afternoon.

NBW-W vs ADH-W Pitch Report

Seddon Park is an excellent venue for batting but with the overhead conditions set to favour the bowlers, a par score could be below 120 in this opening game of the tournament.

Toss: To Bowl

It was Auckland Hearts who won when chasing in this head to head last season so we predict that both captains will want to bowl first ahead of chasing down a target!