Black bowls up to cricket's big final

After taking her cricket to the other side of the world in 2023, Emma Black will be back on familiar territory this Sunday as she and her Otago Sparks teammates take on the Wellington Blaze in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield Final.

After convincingly beating the Auckland Hearts at home twice last weekend, the Sparks not only managed to leapfrog their opponents on the table, but also ended up securing top spot ahead of the Blaze after the 10-match regular season. Their reward? Home advantage for the 50-over domestic women’s showpiece at the University of Otago Oval in Dunedin.

“It was an awesome team effort. We all played a role, which was cool,” says Black, reflecting on those back-to-back wins.

“I think we established at the start of the season that we’ve got a lot of friendships, which allow anyone and everyone to get involved and be together. We don’t just turn up and play cricket together, we try to get around each other outside cricket as well. If we have relationships on and off the field as well, that creates a really cool team environment where even if you’re a new player you still feel like you have a voice as well,” she says.

The 22-year-old Black has been in a rich vein of form, with the right arm strike bowler picking up seven wickets against the Hearts. On Saturday she took three for 31 to help set up a four-wicket win, following that up on Sunday with four for 29 to help dismiss Auckland for 144. She leads the wicket takers in the competition with 21 so far, three more than Kayley Knight from Northern Districts.

“It’s been really good. It’s not just bowling well in the nets, I’m taking it onto the field. Taking early wickets I think is key,” says Black.

“Polly [Inglis, Otago wicketkeeper] thinks I might be one of the quickest [bowlers in the team]. I don’t really look quick because I’m quite a skiddy bowler but I think it’s coming out a bit quicker which is good,” she says.

Sparks Head Coach Craig Cumming has also noticed a difference in Black’s bowling speed and is quick to compliment the improvements in her game.

“She’s picked up a little bit of extra pace so not only can she swing the ball in, but just by adding five to seven kilometres per hour, it’s makes her a little bit more effective, but it also makes her more effective with the old ball,” says Cumming.

“She’s got a very good cricket intellect, she knows what she’s doing, she’s always really well prepared and as a person she is what I’d call a no-fuss type of person. She’s very straight up and down and she says things as it is and she’s also a wonderful personality with high energy and she’s a real leader in our group. At the moment, the success she’s getting is down to firstly hard work and also who she is as a person, so it’s really rewarding to see her doing well,” he says.

Black travelled to England last May and played their summer for North London Cricket Club. Living in Finsbury Park, she got the chance to not only experience cricket in a different country, but also an opportunity to play higher up the batting order than she’s used to.

“The cricket was a little bit of a lower level but that was all right. It let me focus on my batting a wee bit more. I batted three or four which was quite surprising as I’m normally a number nine or 10. It’s something that I want to keep developing in my game,” she says.

When the cricket season ended, she was able to travel, spending September in Berlin, the south of France and Rome, before heading back to Dunedin where she flats with Sparks teammates Polly Inglis and Olivia Gain.

Black is studying for a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Otago, needing one paper to complete her degree. Cricket and travel have delayed its completion, but she is planning on doing that final paper next semester online. The degree contains history, criminology, and sports development and management. Although her focus is very much on cricket at the moment, she has a long-term desire to look at a career in the police, perhaps as a detective.

Naturally, when someone is good form, there is talk in some quarters about further honours for the uncapped Black. Next month England not only send a side to New Zealand to play the White Ferns in five T20 internationals and three one-day internationals, but they also send an A side to play New Zealand A in three T20’s and three one-day matches. The A fixtures will be played entirely in the South Island, including a one-day fixture in Dunedin on March 23.

“Hopefully I can progress and continue to play good cricket and get selected in higher honours, but you can’t control that side of the game with selections and what-not, so it’s about them [the selectors] and how they balance the side etc. I’ll just continue doing what I’m doing and hope for the best,” she says.

First and foremost for Black and Otago however is this weekend and they will look to carry momentum into the final against the defending champions.

“We’re going in with the same focus to go play a good brand of cricket and be confident in ourselves. It’s just another game of cricket.”