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Sports correspondent & historian with |
One of the rewards of writing about sport in general (and cricket in particular) is being able to chart the progress of Western Bay of Plenty talent on to the big stage.
One such talented cricket player is Nensi Patel, who earned White Ferns selection against Zimbabwe in the T20 international and ODI series, which concludes this week.
Nensi showed precocious talent from the get-go, making her debut for the ND Women’s side at just 14 years of age, in the 2016/17 season.
Selection for the New Zealand Women U-19 team saw Nensi post a highest score of 18 not out and grab three wickets, in four outings in the T20 International age group competition.
Life is never a straight line of success. A New Zealand playing contract in the 2022/23 season saw Nensi on the cusp of White Fern selection, without receiving a New Zealand team call-up.
Hard work and self-belief resulted in the Tauranga young woman’s player then stamping her mark in the furnace of NZC Women’s major association competition.
This season, Nensi has become a pivotal anchor in the Northern Districts Women’s team that won the time-honoured NZC Halliburton Johnstone Shield.
Five wickets in the three T20 International encounters, with the side from the African continent, suggested that Nensi will become a regular White Ferns selection.
Another young Western Bay player making waves this season is Bay of Plenty men’s captain, Oliver White.
White also received the experience of international age-group competition when he was selected to represent his nation at the 2020 Under-19 World Cup staged in South Africa.
Last weekend, he broke the 1000 run mark in a lightning-fast 27 games in the Bay of Plenty strip.
Known in cricket circles as Oli, he was given the skipper’s armband last season after just two previous Bay games.
White wrote his name into Bay of Plenty representative cricket history when he belted 173 runs against Waikato Valley in a Fergus Hickey Rosebowl encounter 12 months ago.
He joined an imposing list that contains Kane Williamson, English test representative Alex Lees, and Bay of Plenty centurions, Mike Wright and Bharat Popli, in breaking through the 150+ runs mark.
This season, Oli has carried on his momentum with two tons, courtesy of 113 against Waikato Valley and an unbeaten 106 in the Bays come from behind win over Counties Manukau.
White has come to the attention of the ND selectors this season, with a NZC Major Association T20 game appearance and a regular spot in the NDA side.
Where to from here for our two Western Bay cricket stars of the future?
The inclusion of Patel in the wider White Ferns squad to play the South African Women in the T20 International series, which kicks off at the Bay Oval on Sunday, suggests she is in the selectors’ vision for the long term future.
Oliver White must surely have earned a contracted spot in the ND men’s professional side next season.
From there, as the saying goes, the ball is in their court, and their cricket future will be determined by performances in the battleground of the top level of the game in the 2026-27 season.
