The Northern Brave are back at Bay Oval for two key matches against the Auckland Hearts and Aces.

Both sides have made two changes, with Pete Bocock and Neil Wagner returning to the men’s side, whilst seamers Lucy Boucher and Shriya Naidu come in for the women.

Pete Borren’s side are coming off an entertaining tied match against the Canterbury Magicians, where Jess Watkin defended seven off the final over including a last ball run-out.

“An epic spectacle of domestic cricket,” says Northern Brave middle-order bat Sam Barriball.

“All results were possible from the final ball of the game, and we showed great fight and composure to tie the match after Canterbury had controlled the chase for most of the innings.”

Sri Lankan overseas Chamari Athapaththu has impressed for her new side with two gamechanger performances in three games, whilst Marama Downes has the second best economy rate in the competition with her key new ball role for the side.

“Marama has been brilliant at the top for us,” adds Barriball.

“She’s very consistent and has set us up with a good bowling powerplay all tournament.

Atha [Chamari Athapaththu] has been excellent since arriving and is so fun to play with, bringing her international experience to our young group.”

The Brave currently sit in sixth place on the table but have games in hand on the rest of the ladder, with Auckland Hearts one place above in fifth.

For the men, only a win will do for the back-to-back defending champions, who sit in sixth place but have two games in hand on the sides above them.

Neil Wagner returns to the squad and is set to lead a strong bowling outfit which features the international experience of Scott Kuggeleijn and Tim Pringle.

With the bat, Henry Cooper will likely return to the top of the order in the absence of BLACKCAPS keeper Tim Seifert, with Pete Bocock slotting into a middle-order role alongside Brett Hampton and Scott Kuggeleijn.

Tomorrow’s fixtures kick off at 12.30pm with the Brave (W) taking on the Auckland Hearts, before the Men host the Aces under lights at 4.00pm.

Watch LIVE and FREE on TVNZ+  

Follow live scoring via https://scoring.nzc.nz/ 

Northern Brave (w) vs Auckland Hearts. Friday 12 January. Bay Oval Mount Maunganui.

• Samantha Barriball 
• Marina Lamplough 
• Carol Agafili 
• Marama Downes 
• Caitlin Gurrey 
• Lucy Boucher 
• Nensi Patel 
• Shriya Naidu 
• Holly Topp (wk) 
• Eimear Richardson (c)
• Chamari Athapaththu* 
• Jess Watkin 

*Overseas Player 

Coach: Peter Borren 

Assistant Coach: Debu Banik

Unavailable due to injury: 

• Bernie Bezuidenhout 

Northern Brave (m) vs Auckland Aces. Friday, January 12. Bay Oval Mount Maunganui.

Coach: BJ Watling 

Assistant Coach: Daniel Flynn

Unavailable due to injury: 

• Joe Walker 
• Scott Johnston