SHE helped sink Spirit but could not be a Hearts-breaker - it was a mixed weekend for Lisa Griffith as she made her return for Otago Sparks in the Super Smash.
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The Super Smash is New Zealand's premier Twenty 20 competition, one in which the Bathurst product made her debut last season.
When the Sparks were in search of a talented all-rounder to add to their ranks last summer, they turned Cricket New South Wales, who suggested Griffith.
With a break between the end of Australia's Women's Big Bash League, in which Griffith plays for Sydney Thunder, and her Women's National Cricket League commitments with the NSW Breakers, she headed across the ditch.
Griffith will play five games before returning to Breakers duty. The first two were contested across the weekend with the Sparks beating Northern Spirit by nine runs but then going down by seven wickets to Auckland Hearts.
Against the Spirit Griffith (0-20 off two overs) did not strike with the ball, but did play a role in a dismissal when running out Kate Anderson. The highlight of the match came from Sparks skipper Suzie Bates, who blasted 106 off 66 deliveries.
Griffith did take a scalp in Auckland, Katie Perkins edging a delivery to be caught behind for 28. It ended a third-wicket stand worth 50 off 43 and came after she had taken a catch off the bowling of team-mate Emma Black.
Griffith finished with 1-30 off 3.4 overs, the Hearts hitting the winning runs in the 17th over.
"We were a little bit disappointed, no doubt about that," Sparks coach Nathan King said of the loss.
"We were just a little bit off with the bat, the ball and in the field, unfortunately."
Griffith's next assignment will come in a weekend double header with the Sparks to meet defending champions Wellington Blaze on Saturday and Northern Spirit on Sunday.