Brothers can’t topple champs
SUBURBAN Parks are through to the Townsville Cricket Twenty20 grand final after picking up two wins over the weekend.
Sub Parks beat Brothers by 21 runs in their first match on Saturday and then backed it up with a seven wicket win against Norths, who were restricted to 68 runs.
Subs will play this weekend’s decider against Brothers or Wests, who play a semi- final on Friday night.
In trouble at 7/ 67 in their opening encounter against Brothers, Subs posted a competitive 120- run total thanks to the 41- run stand made by Brad Radford ( 25) and Jason Shephard ( 25 no), and then restricted the Brethren to 9/ 99, with Cooper Guest ( 30) topscoring.
A tight bowling and fielding performance then followed against Norths, who were held to just 68 runs from their 20 overs, a target Subs reached in nine overs thanks largely to a quickfire 27 runs from Riley Ward, who hit two sixes in his 14- ball knock.
Jake Heers ( 3/ 9), Brad Dunn ( 2/ 16) and Trent Walsh ( 2/ 19) were the pick of Subs’ bowlers.
“I think the grand final will be a lot tougher than those two games we just had, but we took a lot of positives from the weekend,” Sub Parks coach Rob Parkes.
“Our fielding was really good in both games and so was our bowling.
“It was unfortunate for Norths because they just couldn’t really get going, but that was their last game of the tournament and they might have been a bit down and out.
“We had a top order collapse against Brothers, but the partnership by Brad ( Radford) and Jason ( Shepard) got us in a good position.
“Riley Ward got a brilliant run out at the start of the second innings and from there Brothers couldn’t really get going.”
Sub Parks scored their latest wins without strike bowler Justin Dixon, who broke his thumb playing for Queensland at the Australian Country Championships. Dixon could be sidelined for up to another seven weeks.
“He could be back for the A grade finals, and hopefully he is because Justin’s such an important part of our team,” Parkes said.
Wests earned their semi- final spot with a 13- run win over Wanderers yesterday, making 5/ 127 before bowling Wanderers for 114.
Brothers beat Wanderers by four runs in the weekend’s first game, and in the other match Wanderers finished a busy weekend with a three- wicket win over Norths.