The New Year's fireworks came early to Pukekura Park with two explosive Dream 11 Super Smash finishes seeing off 2021.
WHITE FERNS pace bowler Lea Tahuhu yet again revealed her steel and power with the bat, the match-winner nervelessly smashing 29 not out off just 10 balls to clinch a tight chase against the Central Hinds.
The Hinds had looked on course to pull off an upset win after they had made a good fist of trying to defend a low total of 112/7 with the ball - led by swing bowler Claudia Green's tidy 0-14 off her four overs.
After claiming big early wickets, the Hinds fought their way back into the match while the visitors were slipping behind the required run rate - until Tahuhu strolled in at 65/4 in the 15th over and proceeded once again to help smash the Magicians to a five-wicket victory with nine balls to spare.
The match saw the Magicians continue their ascent up the women's ladder into third spot, in captain Frankie Mackay's 100th T20 game for her team - becoming the first Canterbury Magician to achieve the magic milestone.
Amy Satterthwaite got the big wicket of Natalie Dodd first ball of the day | PHOTOSPORT
While the women's match was a relatively low-scoring affair, the men's sequel saw a fat 438 runs scored in one game as batsmen on both sides relished the sunshine in New Plymouth.
Central Stags captain Tom Bruce blasted no fewer than eight of his team's 13 sixes in a pyrotechnic career-best knock of 93 not out off just 36 balls.
The former white-ball BLACKCAP had belted his half century off just 25 balls, with Dane Cleaver contributing the other five maximums in a 32-ball 61 - his second T20 fifty in the space of two days at the ground - to propel the Stags to a big total of 217/4.
Fielding brilliance from Blake Coburn in the relay catch of the summer | PHOTOSPORT
Missing the services of an injured Adam Milne, Ben Wheeler and Christian Leopard and with Ma'ara Ave on debut, the Stags lost their way with the ball, however, before the Canterbury Kings produced an explosive finish of their own to snatch a shock win in just the 18th over.
It was a case of anything you can do, we can do better - with 19 sixes in the Kings' chase, all seven of the batsmen clearing the rope.
Leo Carter set up the Kings' chase with a quick half century before tall allrounder Henry Shipley (above) blasted his T20 career best 39* off just 11 balls and Cam Fletcher finished unbeaten on 48* off 21 in a memorable match-winning, unbroken 87-run stand off just 26 balls for the sixth wicket.
Central will return to Pukekura Park on 8 January looking for better fortune after the Stags and Hinds both suffered twin defeats over the four games in the space of 48 hours at their picturesque home ground, the Kings leap-frogging the Stags into clear second on the table.
