Tatts Cricket Club reaches NDCA second grade one day grand final

The Tatts Cricket Club’s second XI continued a remarkable late-season premiership push with a 60-run preliminary final victory in Saturday’s Narrabri District Cricket Association second grade one day competition preliminary final.

Searching for its first second grade one day premiership since 2018, Tatts was in danger of missing out on the finals all together with two rounds to go when it needed to win both games and for other results to go its way.

The side got the job done and snuck into third place on the ladder to book a preliminary final showdown with the second-placed Western Imperial Razorbacks.

Tatts won that match by 60 runs after batting first and reaching 102 in 38 overs then knocking over the chasing side for just 42 runs in 26.3 overs.

Tatts’ opening batsmen Guy Gleeson (6) and Ashley Watt (1) both failed to fire before being dismissed early by Harry Pattison which made the score 2-14 after nine overs.

Number three batsman Eben Botha chipped in with a handy 11 before Sid Harvey and Michael Hewett put on a 35-run partnership to guide Tatts from 3-27 to 4-62 when Harvey (17) was eventually dismissed in the 25th over.

Two overs later Hewett was caught for a game-best 33 runs which made the score 5-73 after 27 overs.

Late contributions by Ryan Steel (14) and Dylan Segundo (10) helped Tatts surpass 100 runs and eventually set the Razorbacks 103 runs to chase.

Pattison (4-14 off seven overs), Pat Legge (3-23 off seven overs), Clay Hoffman (2-25 off eight overs) and Nathan Hamblin (1-18 from eight overs) combined for the Razorbacks’ 10 wickets.

Segundo then made it a double blow for the chasing side when he bowled the Razorbacks’ other opener Angus Galagher (4) to make the score 2-10 after five overs.

That became 3-17 in the 10th when Pattison (1) was bowled by Sanchit Jagadeesan.

With the sides highest run scorer for the 2019-20 season Robinson back in the stands the Wee Waa-based team was relying on its second highest run scorer Hamblin to help get its innings back on track following a shaky start.

But the chasing side’s chances went from bad to worse in the 15th over when Hamblin (7) was caught by Gleeson from the bowling of Jonty Fowler.

The very next over a fifth wicket fell when Steel ran out Lucas Hatton (2) before the Razorbacks lost another one in the 17th over when captain Legge was trapped in front for a duck by Fowler which made the score 6-29.

With just 10 batsmen at its disposal due to a lack of available players, the chasing side needed 74 more runs to win the match with just three wickets in hand.

However it could only manage to add 13 more.

In the 22nd over Tatts’ Eben Botha bowled Hoffman (7) before dismissing Mark Ruttger for a duck.

Razorbacks’s Eliza Bunner scored an unbeaten eight runs which was her team’s highest individual total on the day.

Her and David Allen put on a nine-run partnership for the last wicket before Allen (3) was run out by Segundo in the Waldo Botha-bowled 27th over to complete Tatts’ victory.

Segundo was not only excellent in the field but also with the ball in hand.

He only took the one wicket but finished with 1-5 from six overs which included four maidens.

Fowler (2-4 off four overs which included two maidens) and Eben Botha (2-11 off six overs which included two maidens) were Tatts’ only multiple wicket takers.

Tatts will now take on second grade one day minor premiers RSL in this Saturday’s grand final.

Tatts has won two out of its three 40-over clashes against RSL this season.