New Zealand Cricket have announced that they have reached agreement with the New Zealand Cricket Players Association on new central contracts for the White Ferns women’s team, which will offer more players a lot more money. Combined with the opportunity to play in overseas leagues such as WBBL, this will bring many of the squad much closer to full time professional status.

Previously 10 New Zealand players were on retainers of up to NZD $10,000, which when combined with match fees could bring their income up to around NZD $25,000.

The new contracts cover 15 players, with a retainer of between NZD $20,000 and up to NZD $34,000, and match fees of NZD $400 for ODIs and $300 for T20s, which will see the top players earning well over NZD $40,000, even before WBBL etc..

As a point of comparison New Zealand’s minimum wage for adults is around NZD $32,000, so CRICKETher’s apocryphal Ferrari dealer again isn’t going to get too excited; but especially for the players who currently are outside of the retainer structure, this is going to be a literally life-changing opportunity to put cricket first, which can only be for the good of the wider game both in New Zealand and more generally.

It might have been the top of the table decider, but this was one of the more one-sided games we’ve seen this season.

With the Vipers choosing to bat, the Lighning made a good start as Sonia Odedra only conceded two runs of the first over, but the second over bowled by  Beth Langston went for 17, whilst the forth bowled by Dane van Niekerk was almost as expensive, going for 16. By the end of the powerplay the Vipers were well on their way at 57-1.

Suzie Bates, looking much more fluent that she did earlier in the week against the Storm, once again top-scored with 36 off 24 balls; and went on later to take 2-11 with the ball too – if you didn’t have her as an all-rounder in your fantasy team, you need to take a long hard look at your yourself in the mirror tonight!!

One person that no one had in their fantasy team is Linsey Smith. The Berkshire orthodox left-armer was a late injury replacement, and hasn’t so much snatched her chance as smashed it. Today, the Lightning reply had actually been on-track, as Eve Jones bashed her way to a quick-fire 23 – at 4 overs they were 26-0; and with van Niekerk in the form she’s been, you’d have put your money on the Lighning at that stage.

Then Charlotte Edwards threw the ball to Smith. In her first over, she bowled van Niekerk and Sophie Devine; and in her second she added Eve Jones LBW to the list. She didn’t take another wicket, but the opposition were so wary of her by then, she didn’t really need to, ending with figures from 4 overs of 3-16. From that point, the result was never in doubt – Smith’s intervention had basically won the game.

Afterwards, Vipers skipper Charlotte Edwards acknowledged what Smith had brought to her team.

“She stood out for me this summer playing for Berkshire so as soon as we had the injury she was an obvious replacement – she has bowled brilliantly, here at the Ageas especially, and she has taken to it like a duck to water. “

“The double wicket over today really changed the game for us.”

“Linsey just bowls it straight – she doesn’t give it much air – she’s just really accurate and that just shows you in Twenty20 cricket the value of a left arm spinner.”

Lightning captain Georgia Elwiss meanwhile was philosophical looking towards their semi final against the Storm:

“We need to dust ourselves off after today and just say the Vipers outplayed us; but over the five games we’ve played some good cricket, so that’s what we need to concentrate on.”

“We’ve got to go into [the semi-final] positively – it does give us a chance to look at the pitch [and] look at the conditions.”

Southern Vipers’ glove-butler Carla Rudd has told CRICKETher that, after their defeat to Western Storm, they are determined to bounce back and top the group table, giving them a semi-final “bye” straight to the final at Chelmsford next weekend.

With only 3 teams qualifying for Finals Day, the second and third-placed teams will play a semi-final in the morning to determine who will face the top-placed side in that afternoon’s final.

There has been some debate about the advantages and disadvantages of finishing top. There is obviously one less hurdle to leap towards the title on the day, but the team that comes out of the semi-final will have had an opportunity to get the pace of the pitch, and will also have the confidence boost of being “on a roll” after their semi-final win.

But for Rudd and the Vipers the bye to the final is key – something they will effectively* play-off for against the Lightning on Sunday at the Ageas Bowl.

“We are looking to bounce back and win on Sunday,” said Rudd. “There’s been a bit of debate [about the advantages and disadvantages of finishing top] but we want to be top and win, definitely.”

——–

* Theoretically, Western Storm could still top the table too, but without the intervention of the weather (fingers crossed) it would require them to record a HUGE victory against the Diamonds.

The key to this match was The County Ground at Taunton: not just the pitch, but the outfield. It made for a balanced game – the pitch had nothing in it for the bowlers; but the boundaries were long, and the outfield gave little away to the batsmen: the ball had to be well-struck if it was to cross the rope.

Batting first, the Vipers benefitted from some scrappy fielding from the Storm, with dropped catches and at least 6 missed run out opportunities. Suzie Bates made what has to be the “stealthiest” fifty of the competition so far – she didn’t look in particularly good nick and when the milestone came up on the scoreboard you felt like you wanted to double-check it was actually correct!

In a way, though, that’s the mark of a great player. She could probably have done with a bit more support, however – both McGlashan and Greenway batted at a strike rate of well under 100; and in the end that left the Vipers maybe 20-odd runs light.

Nevertheless, it looked at the break that if the Vipers could bowl smartly and field aggressively, they were in the driving seat, especially after the first two overs from Tash Farrant and Morna Nielsen went for just two miserly runs between them.

That it wasn’t to be was thanks of course to Stafanie Taylor, who was the only player to make batting look really easy today, finding the boundary 11 times – just one less than the Vipers’ entire 12-boundary innings! As Carla Rudd put it, speaking to CRICKETher after close of play: “There’s not a lot you can do when someone’s batting as well as that.”

Taylor herself, referencing those first two overs, reflected that the key was not to rush things early on:

“You just had to play yourself in a bit first and then as soon as you did that you could get the pace of the wicket and then you could actually play your shots.”

“The coach said to me that I should take my time and then as soon as I’m in I could play my shots, and when I started doing that the runs started coming. I think it was actually coming at a good time when the team needed it.”

A magnificent first international century from opener Laura Wolvaardt, and a remarkable 4th international 5-for from leg spinner Sune Luus, sealed an unassailable 3-0 lead for South Africa in their ODI series versus Ireland.

Opening the batting with Trisha Chetty, who herself went on to make 95, Wolvaardt played positive but virtually chanceless cricket from the start, the seventeen year old taking the lead in a record first wicket partnership of 192, before finally swinging and missing at a straight one from Louise McCarthy, as she tried to push on after passing 100 – her knock ending on 105 off 125 balls.

A rapid 22 off 13 balls from Mignon du Preez looked dangerous, before she dozily allowed herself to be run out, hesitating outside her crease after surviving an LBW appeal; and Ireland thereafter pulled things back somewhat – veteran Ciara Metcalfe the pick of the Irish bowlers with 2-37 – as the visitors closed on 260-6.

Irish openers Clare Shillington and debutante Una Raymond-Hoey came out with real intent – hitting 26 from the first two overs, and reaching 38 before Shillington was bowled off the final ball of the 5th over. The run rate then slowed significantly as Ireland lost Cath Dalton and Gaby Lewis cheaply – the latter the first of Sune Luus’ victims, as she tried to loft her back over her head, and was caught off a shot that was all loft, and not enough back over head!

That brought Kim Garth to the crease, who put on 99 with Isobel Joyce, and had the Irish thinking “maybe, just maybe”; but after Joyce was caught, mis-cutting a full ball straight to du Preez at point, Ireland’s hopes rested on Mary Waldron staying with Garth. Waldron hung on for 5 overs, but with the run rate climbing, she came down the pitch to Luus and was stumped with the score on 191. Ireland were to add just 2 more runs to their total as they were bowled out for 193, Garth stranded on 51* and Luus finishing with 5-32.

Afterwards Laura Wolvaardt spoke to CRICKETher about her hundred:

“It is quite amazing – it hasn’t really sunk in yet but it is a great feeling and hopefully the start of many more. [On 99] I was more nervous than I think I’ve ever been in my life – it was really stressful. I’m just happy I got bat on ball and didn’t stay on 99 for too long, because I think I might have died!”

This match was a case-study in not giving up. The Storm looked dead and buried at least twice.

First, at the end of the 4th over, with the Storm at 17-3, and with Rachel Priest, Heather Knight and Fran Wilson all back in the dugout, you’d have put your money on the Stars 100% – the Storm were dead and buried.

Then, with the Storm having somehow clawed things back to parity by the end of the 13th over, thanks to some powerful hitting in a 75 run partnership between Lizelle Lee and Stafanie Taylor, the Storm lost Lee at the start of the 14th, and proceeded to score just 3 runs for the loss for the loss of 2 wickets in following 2 overs, leaving them staring at a Required Rate of over 14. Having come back to life… presumably as zombies… the Storm were dead and buried once more – Surrey just couldn’t lose it all over again… could they?

That they did was down to a number of things – Stafanie Taylor keeping her cool, finding the boundary 7 times in the last 3 overs; Sophie Luff (whose game would really be much better suited to Tests… which she’ll probably never get to play) keeping her cool in supporting Taylor and giving up the strike; and some frankly pretty woeful fielding from the Stars – the latter probably actually the most important factor overall – if they had fielded better, the Stars would have won this game.

Afterwards, Stafanie Taylor reflected upon the impact her dropping Nat Sciver had on her mindset going into bat:

“The type of player that I am, it was horrible for me actually to be in the field and not take those catches and not get it right. So when I came off I sat in the dressing room and I just had a moment to myself, thinking: ‘I have to contribute to this team, I really have to – it doesn’t matter about what happened, but I have to give it my all and just go out there and do my best’.”