ACES & HEARTS Hit The Road For Important Northern Brave Encounter

After three home matches on the trot at Kennards Hire Community Oval, the ACES & HEARTS will finally face off against the Northern Brave (Men & Women) at Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui.

In a strange quirk of this season’s scheduling, the ACES have only faced Northern Districts in two Ford Trophy fixtures this season at Seddon Park, Hamilton, one of them a washout and the other a loss. Meanwhile, the HEARTS haven’t faced Northern Districts at all this season in any official competition.

The ACES still sit at 6th place on the Super Smash table and will likely leapfrog the Brave (currently 5th place) if they win tomorrow, though they have played one more game overall.

They’ll bank on taking some winning momentum into tomorrow’s match from yesterday’s win against the Wellington Firebirds. Ben Lister will fly out to India to join the BLACKCAPS ahead of the T20 tour and his replacement, left-arm quick Matt Gibson, marks the only change for the ACES.

Despite their loss yesterday against table toppers the Wellington Blaze, at the time of writing the HEARTS still sit at 3rd on the table. If the Otago Sparks beat the Central Hinds today they’ll drop to 4th but a win tomorrow and they’ll be back in the top three and will look to consolidate their position before the elimination finals on the 9th of February.

Coach Rob Nicol has once again named a settled squad for the clash, and this will mark the final Super Smash match that WHITEFERNS Lauren Down and Molly Penfold will be available for before flying out to South Africa ahead of the Women’s T20 World Cup.

The HEARTS will kick off proceedings vs. The Brave (W) at 1:40pm, with the ACES vs. Brave (M) match starting at 5:30pm. Both games are live on Spark Sport.

Dream11 Super Smash | Auckland HEARTS vs. Northern Brave (W)
1:40pm, 22 January 2023 | Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui

Bella Armstrong (Cornwall)
Skye Bowden (Howick Pakuranga)
Sarah Carnachan (Cornwall) (wk)
Prue Catton (Auckland University)
Lauren Down (Takapuna) (c)
Amie Hucker (Cornwall)
Holly Huddleston (Auckland University)
Arlene Kelly (Takapuna)
Molly Penfold (Howick Pakuranga)
Katie Perkins (Cornwall)
Saachi Shahri (Howick Pakuranga)
Makayla Templeton (Papatoetoe)

Dream11 Super Smash | Auckland ACES vs. Northern Brave (M)
5:30pm, 22 January 2023 | Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui

Adi Ashok (Suburbs New Lynn)
Cole Briggs (East Coast Bays)
Louis Delport (East Coast Bays)
Danru Ferns (Takapuna)

Matt Gibson (Cornwall)
Ben Horne (Parnell) (wk)
Kyle Jamieson (Suburbs New Lynn)
Robert O'Donnell (Takapuna) (c)
William O’Donnell (Takapuna)
Sean Solia (Suburbs New Lynn)
Ross Ter Braak (Takapuna)
George Worker (Cornwall)

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