Northern Brave Women Team: Squad, Results, Stats & Schedule

Northern Brave Women are Northern Districts Cricket's women's T20 side, representing six district associations across the upper North Island. Northern Districts entered national women's domestic cricket in November 1999 and adopted the shared Northern Brave men's and women's T20 identity in 2021.

They finished second in the 2025/26 Women's Super Smash league with five wins, three losses, one no-result after play began, one abandonment, four bonus points and 28 points. Their campaign ended in the Hagley Oval Eliminator when Auckland Hearts chased 139 with two balls remaining.

The summer still became the most successful in programme history. Captain Jess Watkin's Northern Districts beat Wellington Blaze by 67 runs in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield final to secure the association's first national women's title after 26 years in the competition.

No. NZC named 12 Northern women in the first 2025/26 domestic contract round and left one contract to follow. Lucy Boucher and Jennifer Gardner are included here because they also appeared during the completed T20 campaign.

That creates a 14-player season tracker without claiming all 14 held domestic contracts. Nensi Patel's separate 2026/27 WHITE FERNS central contract is current, but it does not turn this historical roster into a confirmed 2026/27 domestic squad.

Until the next domestic list is published, appearance, domestic contract and central contract remain three different status layers.

Five wins supplied 20 points, while one no-result and one abandonment added four. Northern's remaining four points were bonuses under a rule used only in the women's competition that season.

A team could earn one bonus point by reaching 150, or through the specified second-innings run-rate condition. Northern reached at least 150 four times: 171 against Canterbury, 162 against Wellington, 162 against Otago and 151 against Canterbury.

The arithmetic is therefore 20 win points + 4 weather points + 4 bonus points = 28. Bonus points did not apply in the Eliminator or Grand Final.

Northern finished second after ten league fixtures, which placed them in the 2v3 Eliminator rather than directly in the Grand Final. Their eight-wicket loss to third-placed Auckland became the 11th and final campaign result.

Only table-topper Wellington advanced straight to the title match. Auckland then moved from the Eliminator into the Grand Final, so Northern's second-place finish should not be described as a final appearance.

The knockout was staged at Hagley Oval under the published finals programme. Higher league rank made Northern the top Eliminator qualifier, not the home team.

The totals belong to different formats and match conditions. Auckland chased Northern's 138 with two balls left in the 20-over Eliminator, while Wellington had up to 50 overs to chase 183 in the HBJ Shield final but was bowled out for 118.

Northern lost regular wickets in the T20 knockout and Auckland reached 139/2. Three weeks later, Northern recovered from 134/8 to 182, then Marama Downes took 3/26 as the one-day attack defended the total by 67 runs.

A score is not strong or weak in isolation. Available overs, wickets, pitch, chase tempo and bowling execution change its value, so the two results cannot be compared by totals alone.

No. Northern Districts Women won the 50-over Hallyburton Johnstone Shield in February 2026. Northern Brave Women still have not won the national women's T20 championship or reached its Grand Final.

The programmes share Northern Districts continuity, but the public T20 side uses the Northern Brave identity and the one-day team competes as Northern Districts Women. The format and winner name both matter in the record.

The accurate season summary is a Women's Super Smash Eliminator finish followed by Northern's first national women's title in the separate one-day competition.