The role of former captain Madison Greenaway epitomised the team ethos of the Wahine Wanderers teenage cricket side which comfortably took out its own T20 tournament at the weekend.
Maddie is the team’s most experienced player but sat out the first two games against Selwyn and Greymouth to give younger players a chance.
Wanderers posted big scores against them and Marlborough to cruise into the Te Tau Ihu, Top of the South, final at Centennial Park on Sunday.
They faced the less experienced Blenheim team again and the Year 13 Waimea College player opened the batting with the new skipper Caitlin Whiting, who had scored 50 in the opening match.
The pair plundered the bowling with Maddie retiring after racing to 55 off just 32 deliveries.
That highlights the team culture of giving everyone a go.
“It was nice to see the other girls get out and have a bat on their home ground. We have created a culture where everybody feels comfortable to play. We have some big hitters and we have got to the point where our players can bat anywhere in the order,” declares Maddie, who is off to Auckland next year to study chiropractic.
Wanderers made 171/3 off its 20 overs and then Garin College allrounder Jamie Adlam ripped through Marlborough’s top order batting.
She took 3/5 with her left arm swing bowling to add to a half century she had scored earlier in the tournament.
Helped by lots of wides, Marlborough got to 76/9, exactly the same number of runs it managed against the hosts the day before.
The Wanderers side also featured footballer Abi Platt, the vice-captain of Nelson Suburbs.
“I gave cricket away two years ago to concentrate on football, but got a text from Maddie to help out. And I thought why not,” says Abi, who used to keep wicket.
“Maddie is an exceptional cricketer, and it was nice to have Abi back for the weekend too. They are all good mates and that shows out in the middle,” says coach Tony Pratt, whose daughter Summa also featured for the side.
It was the third staging of the tournament, which was devised by Maddie’s mother Jo Cotton, a Waimea College teacher.
“It was developed to bridge the gap for young girls and try to bring them through to Nelson representative level at the Nyxons,” says Jo.
And it has worked, with two thirds of the Wanderers team advancing to the Nyxons squad.
They will be hoping to take that form to Blenheim when they play the Marlborough rep side later this month.
