City, Two Blues go through to T20 grand final

GEELONG City has progressed to its first Geelong Advertiser Cup T20 final - and sent Leopold crashing out of the competition - with solid win at Richmond Crescent last night.

The Sharks moved into the grand final against Newtown & Chilwell, who thrashed Lara to finish on top of Pool A.

City skipper Richie Oliver was thrilled to learn that his team had progressed to the decider, knowing that a loss to the Lions would have ended their campaign.

“It’s the first time in the club’s history that we’ve made the finals (in T20), so we’re pretty pumped,” Oliver said post match.

“We put in a good show tonight, but there’s some bloody good sides in the comp, so we’ll have to play well but we’ve earned the right to be there.”

Posting 151 on the back of neat cameos from Steve Anastasiu (35), Josh McDonald (25) and Oliver (20), the Sharks were in the box seat to claim victory.

But Leopold, led by Martyn East (30) Tim Marshall (28) and Pat Richards (32) made a good fist of the run chase, falling 18 runs shy.

“I think we played OK,” Lions’ coach Scott Lindsay said.

“They’ve got three really good players in Steve, Richie and Josh McDonald and they played the conditions well.

“We lost a bit in the middle section, but we played well.”

Newtown & Chilwell cemented its position at the top of Pool A, thrashing Lara by nine wickets.

Mitchell Davis claimed three scalps for the Two Blues as the Cats crashed to be all out for 83.

In reply, Graham Clark smashed 42 to get his side home in the 12th over.

In other matches, St Joseph’s claimed its first win of the season, defeating North Geelong by 10 runs.

The grand final will be held on Sunday February 11, 2018.

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