5:03 AM
Happy new year 2012
TONY BIRD
White Ferns cricket captain Aimee Watkins is hoping – more than anyone else – that the sun shines in Brisbane for the next two days at least.
Watkins has been stuck on 98 cricket international caps since last year, but has been stymied in her bid to bring up three figures by the Canterbury earthquake and bad weather.
Officials abandoned the first game of the three-match one-day Rose Bowl series against Australia in Brisbane on Sunday because the ground was waterlogged. Watkins now has to play both the second and third one-day matches in the series – at Allan Border Field in Brisbane today and on Thursday – to reach a ton.
Honours were shared two-all in the Twenty20 component of the competition played in New Zealand last summer with the White Ferns now needing to win the remaining two one-dayers to take the Rose Bowl off Australia.
If the weather doesn't play its part, Watkins will head to the United Kingdom with the White Ferns two matches short of her century of games.
In Brisbane to watch his wife play her 100th game for her country is husband and Taranaki Cricket development officer Jamie Watkins.
"It didn't rain all day yesterday, but it had been raining the two days before and there was a huge wet patch on the ground and there was no chance of any play," he said yesterday.
"It's a beautiful day here today and the prospects of play tomorrow are good."
Jamie said with the series level at two each, the White Ferns couldn't afford a loss.
"Now instead of having to win two from three they now have to win both, which makes it a bit tougher.
"So hopefully, all going well, they will be right tomorrow," he said.
"Aimee's 100th game will be a series-deciding one on Thursday so it will hold a fair bit of interest."
- Taranaki Daily News
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