North bowls into grand final
MINOR premier North Geelong is through to the GCA1 grand final, but not without a hard-fought five-wicket semifinal win over Lara.
Batting first, the Cats reached 43 for the first wicket as Brad McMaster (31) assumed the mantle of aggressor with Andy Hughes playing the sheet-anchor role.
“We were bowling pretty badly, a lot of loose, four-balls,” Magpies’ skipper Sam Hall said of Lara’s bright start.
“But ‘Fitzy’ (Nathan Fitzpatrick) came on and got a few, Shaun Kingwell bowled really well and got two wickets
“Every time they put a little partnership together we’d get one which was really good.”
Lara lost Daniel Weigl (21) and then Andy Hughes (38) at 106, before Daniel Hughes (35) set about stabilising the back half of the innings that reached its conclusion at 163 in the 70th over.
Fitzpatrick finished with 4-52, while Kingwell’s miserly display of 13 overs, 2-20, was complemented by Andrew Fergusson’s 2-4. The experience of the recently returned Cam Alford (1-24) was a fillip for the Osborne Park faithful.
“Because he swings it into the right-handers he makes batsmen play, which I think is really important at the start,” Hall said. “He’s bowled really well in big finals before, so it’s great to have him back fit.
“It’s handy to have him right at this time of the year.”
North faced a dozen overs to reach 0-36 on Saturday before picking up where it left off.
Come yesterday and Sam Hall (24) departed at 56, before Curtly Balshaw (47) and Braden Szponar (22) carried the Magpies to a position of strength at 2-108.
Despite some tense moments, including the loss of Fergusson (1) and Damian Vassiliou (17) in quick succession, the Magpies defied the likes of Daniel Hughes (2-32) and Weigl (2-22), to book a grand final appointment with East Belmont. Mitch Troy (21) and Fitzpatrick (11) saw the Magpies to 5-164.
“We knew they weren’t just going to let us go through easily, they’ve got a couple of really good bowlers there and having said that we played some shocking shots as well,” Hall said.
“We haven’t chased well in finals in recent years, but we got there in the end, five down.
“It was good to get the monkey off our back in that regard.
“All being well we don’t really care whether we bat or bowl first next week, as we’ve chased the last four or five games and we’ve won all of them.” GET THE BEST ODDS AT Punters.com.au GATE01Z01MA - V1