Tourist Hotel continues its unbeaten T20 comp run

Tourist Hotel Cricket Club’s two second grade sides met in their first and what will likely be their only T20 encounter in the 2021-22 Narrabri District Cricket Association second grade T20 season match on Friday.

The Jye Manton-captained round one winners, Tourist Hotel, made it two from two with a dominant 49-run win against the Sudi Perera-captained Tourist Sports Bar.

Tourist Hotel batted first after Manton won the toss and the side only lost three wickets on its way to 121 runs in 20 overs.

In reply, Tourist Sports Bar only reached managed to score 8-72 in its 20 overs as it fell 50 runs short of the winning total.

Only five batsmen were required to take their marks in the middle in the first innings.

Openers Aaron Baker (22) and Luke Ensby (34) made handy contributions and the side’s number three, Joey Madden, scored an unbeaten 36.

Only DJ Allen (0) failed to fire, while Lucas Hogan remained unbeaten on 15 after the final ball had been bowled.

All three of Tourist Sports Bar’s wickets were taken by Perera, who finished the innings with 3-19 off four overs.

Tourist Sports Bar’s chase got off to a positive start as the side scored at almost four an over for the first six overs.

If it was able to maintain that run rate deep in the innings it would have been in the driver’s seat, however, openers Nick Tomlinson (13) and Mitch Foster (3) were both dismissed in the seventh over before runs became hard to find.

The chasing side lost another wicket in the seventh over as Michael Eames made the score 3-29. His side then limited Tourist Sports Bar to nine runs in five overs as the score became 5-38 after 12.

Scoring 84 runs in eight overs was far too much to ask for Tourist Sports Bar which finished the innings on 8-72.

Dave McInnes top-scored for the chasing side with 21 runs, while Eames (4-6 from four overs) was Tourist Hotel’s best with the ball.

The victory saw the Tourist Hotel side finish in the outright first position on the NDCA’s second grade T20 ladder following two wins from as many matches.

It takes on Tatts at Collins Park in the third and final round of the regular season this Friday, where a win would guarantee the side a spot in the January 28 grand final.

On the other hand, Tourist Sports Bar is winless after two matches and is facing an uphill battle to qualify for the decider.

It will meet RSL at Hogan Oval this Friday and must win that match to progress. It would also need Tatts to lose the other match, and would then rely on net run rate to get it into the grand final.

Tourist Hotel can still miss out on a spot in the decider if it loses on Friday and RSL wins, and its net run rate is less of that of both RSL and Tatts.