Justin Saunders was both proud and honoured to get the chance to captain the Narrabri RSL Cricket Club’s second XI during its victorious 2020-21 T20 campaign.

Saunders, a stalwart of the club that he has been a part of for about 20 years, captained all three of his side’s Narrabri District Cricket Association second grade T20 competition regular season matches as well as Saturday’s grand final.

In the decider, defending champions RSL secured back-to-back titles with a one-run win against the Western Razorbacks.

“It was a very exciting game and very nerve-wracking at the end,” Saunders told The Courier.

“I don’t know if we deserved to win, we did let a lot of easy singles go through, but in the end we got the job done and I’m very happy with the win.”

Saunders, who usually opens the bowling himself with spin, opted to go with young quicks Tim Shields and Will Ford on Saturday which turned out to be a stroke of genius.

Ford was named man-of-the match after taking 3-8 from four overs, and Shields, who also bowled at the death, secured the match-winning run out.

“The Razorbacks have a few batsmen who I thought might have got to me early and hit me around so I opened with a couple of our young quicks,” Saunders said.

“I wanted to put the pressure on early and it did the job in the end.

“Will was outstanding. I think he’s got the potential to go a long way, he’s a very talented young man and on Saturday in the big occasion he went really well.

“Tim was great, he’s always reliable at the start and at the end. He didn’t score the runs he would have wanted but he bowled well and fielded really well too.

“Another young player Bernard [O’Connor] was also great too.”

Saunders said that it was an exciting time to be a part of the Narrabri RSL Cricket Club.

“It’s really good to be a part of the club at the moment,” he said.

“There’s a good mix of youth and old blokes. At the moment it’s really exciting at RSL.

“In second grade, our goal is to win the 40-over grand final again this year which would be three in a row.

“To get the top spot we only need one more win I think, because we have the bye in there too.

“We also need to get our first grade side back to the grand final, they’ve got a really good side this season.

“Hopefully both get to the grand final which would be very pleasing and it’d be even better if we could both get up.”

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