THE final round of the T20 series was played on Saturday, ahead of next weekend’s finals bonanza with both the semi finals and grand final being played Saturday.
T20 ladder leaders Wandella took the home ground advantage against bottom placed St Mary’s Tyntynder and defeated the visitors 2/128 v 5/127.
The Bulldogs headed to the crease first with Aydan Symons and Bailey Codling opening the account with 22 runs from 25 balls and 44 runs from 31 balls respectively.
Symons was caught by Flynn McKnight off the bowling of Laing Waddingham and McKnight went on to prove dangerous in the field taking four catches from Wandella’s total of five.
Apart from one six, Symons struggled to find the boundary, so runs were hard to come by.
Codling on the other hand had a field day at the crease, smashing a single six plus seven fours.
His effort got the Bulldogs in the hunt until he too was victim to the hands of McKnight off the bowling of Ryan Barnes.
Incoming batsman Riley Daniels accounted for a further 22 runs before being dismissed by McKnight off the bowling of Rhys Behrens.
Austin McKerrow hit 23 runs off 23 balls, including one four before he fell victim to the same combination as Codling and that’s where the wind left the Bulldog’s sails.
Robin Sebastian saw out the 20 over with seven not out, while Connor Power was caught off the bowling of Barnes for a duck.
Barnes was the leading wicket-taker for Wandella claiming three for the day.
When the Bombers took their turn with the bat it was Daniel Higgs and Flynn McKnight who set the tone.
Higgs smashed his way to 59 runs from 41 balls and racked up five fourss and three sixes.
He was eventually bowled out by Nathaniel Holmes-Brown who took the Bulldog’s only two wickets for the day.
McKnight belted 54 runs from 42 balls which included seven fours and a six.
Behrens and Samuel Copland saw the side home, beating The Bulldogs in 16.5 overs.
BKCC travelled out to Woorinen to meet the Tigers on their home turf and won comfortably with 6/150 v 8/124.
Batting first, BKCC’s Joel Davidson set the pace with 49 off 45 balls before being caught by Billy Matthews off the bowling of Lachlan Rushton.
Warren Lolicato gave the boundary a nudge with four fours for a total of 27 runs from 22 balls before being caught by Dean Morpeth off the bowling of Robert Rush.
Incoming Gary Lolicato added a further 28 runs to the scorecard while the remaining four batsmen registered single digits.
Robert Rush was the best for the bowlers taking two wickets in his four overs.
The Woorinen batsmen Jason Mangiameli (33 from 29 balls) and Darren Rushton (49 from 44 balls) were the only two to make a serious impact on the scoreboard.
In the end, Woorinen ran out of overs and could not chase down BKCC’s score.
In the final match of the round, Ultima Tuff chased down RSL taking the win 7/98 over 7/94.
Stuart Patterson came out strong for RSL hitting 18 runs from 18 balls, but a catch from Jacob Hatcher off the bowling of Riley Hender ended his campaign and RSL lost their way from there.
Patrick Caldwell’s 17 runs from 18 balls was a fair effort but after 20 overs, the side gave Ultima Tuf an easy target to chase.
Hender and Lachlan Edwards were the best for the fielding side, each scooping two wickets a piece.
Ultima Tuf started shaky with the bat with Kyle Symons bowled out for three runs after 12 balls by Henry Cox.
Fourth Batsman Hatcher made the biggest impact, smacking 25 runs from 29 balls and the rest of the batsmen shared the runs between them.
Ultima were able to steal victory after 16.2 overs.
The semi finals will be contested on Saturday at Swan Hill Recreation Reserve at 1pm with first placed Wandella taking on fourth placed Woorinen.
Second-placed Ultima will take on third-placed Nyah at Alan Garden Reserve at 1pm.
All matches are sudden death with the two winning sides playing at Swan Hill Recreation Reserve at 4.30pm.
