By Elliot Stevenson<\/p>\n
Kingborough is riding high following its six-wicket victory over reigning premier North Hobart at the Twin Ovals last Sunday but faces another stiff test this weekend against the Greater Northern Raiders.<\/p>\n
Emily Divin\u2019s side will travel to Windsor Park full of confidence, having enacted a measure of revenge against the team that defeated them in last year\u2019s Kookaburra Cup final.<\/p>\n
Divin admits the win was made \u201csweeter in a way\u201d due to the opposition but is focused on moving forward into the new season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s always tough to lose a grand final,\u201d she said. \u201cNorth Hobart have been so strong for such a long time, and they were exactly that again last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo to come out and be able to get that win to start off the season was definitely really pleasing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great way to start the season. We had a really strong pre-season.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone was coming into the game feeling really positive about what we could do out on the field, and I think we definitely delivered that with both bat and ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Off-spinner Nikki Carter announced her return to the club after two years away from the game in style, taking 4-43 off 9 overs.<\/p>\n
Divin praised Carter for her contribution to Sunday\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was great to have Nikki back in,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s been a long time out of the game and she’s one of our original members at the Knights.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see her come back to the game and start so positively with the ball was awesome. She thoroughly deserved it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last season\u2019s Kim Fazackerley medallist Amy Gordon continues to go from stride to stride for Kingborough, with the star all-rounder hitting her second CTPL century last weekend.<\/p>\n
The Englishwoman made an unbeaten 119 off 123 balls to guide the Knights home with 12.1 overs remaining and will be aiming to repeat her efforts this Sunday in Launceston.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was great to get her back around the group,\u201d Divin said. \u201cShe’s come straight back into it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe’s been back for a couple of weeks now and to see her kick off her season in such dominant form was awesome and hopefully that’s just a sign of things to come for her.<\/p>\n
While Sunday\u2019s opponent the Greater Northern Raiders had the bye last week, Divin is well aware of the threat they possess.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year we saw they were a really strong side,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was always a tough contest, and I think it’ll be no different this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ll just look to go out and continue to compete with bat and ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we’ve got a lot of depth with the ball and with the bat, things are coming together as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ll just look to put another complete performance on the board and try and get another win.\u201d<\/p>\n
North Hobart will cross the Derwent River to face fellow round one losers Clarence, with both sides searching for the first points of 2026-27.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, New Town will enjoy a week off with a dominant win already under its belt, having defeated Clarence by 164 runs last weekend.<\/p>\n
In the men\u2019s competition, four sides will be aiming to remain undefeated as the Kookaburra Cup continues across the competition.<\/p>\n
Lindisfarne hosts North Hobart at Anzac Park on Saturday and will be without Tasmanian Tigers duo Teague Wyllie and Marcus Bean.<\/p>\n
The Lightning defeated University by five wickets in round one, courtesy of a five-wicket haul from seamer Lachie Nichols.<\/p>\n
It was the opposite story for North Hobart, which fell to Clarence at Kangaroo Bay Oval by six wickets, despite a half-century on debut for playing-coach Sam Truloff (59 off 73 balls).<\/p>\n
The ladder-leading Greater Northern Raiders will travel to Kingborough to face the Knights at the Twin Ovals, following a two-win start to their season.<\/p>\n
The Raiders defeated both New Town and the Northern Magpies last weekend at Windsor Oval but face a new challenge of the similarly undefeated Knights this Saturday.<\/p>\n
Star batter Ben McDermott will be unavailable as Clarence hosts the Northern Magpies at Kangaroo Bay Oval.<\/p>\n
The power hitter is on Tigers duty after making 92 not out off 118 balls in last weekend\u2019s victory over North Hobart.<\/p>\n
New Town, South Hobart-Sandy Bay, and University will all have the bye this weekend<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Elliot Stevenson Kingborough is riding high following its six-wicket victory over reigning premier North Hobart at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":921182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85,83],"class_list":["post-921181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=921181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/921182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}