Central Districts handed the Canterbury women's side a huge life line in its bid to defy the odds and play Auckland in the State League final next week.

Central got their game together well and truly and beat Wellington today by 79 runs in their match at Napier's McLean Park.

CD batted first and scored 211/4 in 50 overs. Nicole Thessman scored 85 not out off 141 balls while Kate Pulford provided good support early with 50 off 90 balls. Sara McGlashan scored 40 off 42 at the end. A highly talented player, McGlashan has been named as one of four women players to be part of the New Zealand Cricket Academy this year. The others are: Nicola Browne, Maria Fahey and Louise Milliken.

Wellington was then bowled out in 46 overs for 132. Jane Hunter-Siu was run out at the bowler's end when the ball was deflected onto the stumps by the bowler. Anna O'Leary struggled and had 19 runs off 61 balls.

Aimee Mason had a superb return for her 10 overs when taking four wickets for 11 runs while also bowling five maidens.

There are no options for Wellington in tomorrow's game if they are to play the final.

Wellington's attitude will have to be they must win, they cannot rely on Canterbury to lose.

They are on 26 points while Canterbury are on 22 and if Canterbury win tomorrow, and Wellington don't, then Canterbury will go through because the first factor when teams are tied, is games won, and only if they share victories do run rates become a factor. And Canterbury would have won one more game.

Auckland, in the meantime, struck some awesome batting form when scoring 270/4 against Northern Districts en route to a 113-run win. Emily Drumm scored 112 off 127 balls and shared a 99-run partnership with Michelle Lynch who scored 64 off 81 balls with 13 fours. Then she had a 101-run stand with Kathryn Ramel who scored 34.

Helen Watson also added 23. In reply, ND could only score 157 with Anna Wilkins scoring 49 and Anna Soma 39. Debbie Ramsay took two for 31 while Natalie Scripps had one for 18 off 10 overs.

Otago had one of their better batting performances of the summer when scoring 186/8 against Canterbury in Oamaru.

Netherlands captain Pauline Te Beest scored 42, Rowan Milburn 33, Sarah Tsukigawa 41 and Katey Martin 24. Helen Daly took three for seven off nine overs while Sarah Burke took two for 28.

Canterbury took 38.4 overs to reach 187/8 and claim a bonus point. Nicky Payne scored 51 off 52 balls, Fahey 27 and Emily Travers produced a clever innings to hit 20 not out to see the side to the bonus point, a task all the more impressive as she had to contend with the bowling of Rachel Pullar.

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