Narrabri RSL Cricket Club wins NDCA’s second grade T20 final

Narrabri RSL Cricket Club celebrated a third consecutive Narrabri District Cricket Association second grade T20 premiership on Friday night as its unprecedented golden run in the local competition continued.

RSL finished second on the 2021-22 short format campaign ladder, following two wins from its three regular season matches, to advance to the grand final where it would meet undefeated minor premiers Tourist Hotel under lights at Collins Park.

The defending champions won the toss and skipper Justin Saunders elected to bat. His side set Tourist Hotel an 89-run total for victory after losing its 10th wicket in the final over of the first innings.

The chasing side then fell 24 runs short as RSL claimed the winning wicket with just two balls to spare after Tourist Hotel limped its way to 65 runs.

The previous season’s second grade T20 player of the final Will Ford was again a standout in this year’s big dance. The 16-year-old RSL all-rounder batted at number four for his side and scored a match-best 31 runs, 22 of which he scored in one over. He then backed up his fine efforts with the bat to take a dominant 3-8 from four overs with the ball.

Fellow RSL youngster Bernard O’Connor also stood up and played a match-winning role in the premiership victory. The 16-year-old opened the batting for RSL and scored 14 runs, then he too claimed 3-8 from four overs with the ball.

Tourist Hotel skipper Jye Manton also impressed on the night in his side’s loss. After bowling four overs and finishing with an economical 1-7 from four overs in the first innings, he opened the batting in the second and scored a team-best 25.

Despite the best efforts of Manton and his minor premiership-winning teammates, they could not deny RSL a third consecutive title.

Saunders was full of praise for his men following their 23-run victory, and told The Courier that he was excited to have been a part of another premiership-winning RSL side.

“It feels great to win three in a row,” Saunders said.

“It was a great team effort to get us over the line.

“We just had to have patience. We knew we had a great bowling attack. In the field, we were a bit dicey and dropped some hard catches, but we fielded pretty good otherwise.

“I think Will Ford as always was great again. He got us to a total that was defendable. He and Bernard O’Connor were great with the ball as well.

“In saying all that though, it was a great all-round effort. We knew we just had to be patient and the wickets would come.

“Looking forward now to the rest of the season, hopefully, we can make the one day grand final again and win it again.”

RSL lost an early wicket on Friday night when opening batsman Alistair Wheeler (0) was caught by Michael Eames in the Manton-bowled opening over which made the score 1-1.

O’Connor (14) and number three batsman Nick Baird (10) made starts before they were both dismissed by Eames, who also removed the big-hitting Daniel Hughes (0) to make the score 4-34 after nine overs.

That became 5-34 in the 10th when Tyson Gilmore became the third RSL batsman to depart for a duck after being caught behind by Aaron Baker from the bowling of Suwan Bodla.

At 5-43 after 13 overs, RSL desperately required a spark to revive its innings.

Ford provided that spark in the 14th over when he smashed Tourist Hotel spinner Scott Smith for 22 runs, which well and truly tilted the game’s momentum in RSL’s favour. Ford began the over with a six and then struck three consecutive fours. Smith then delivered a much-needed dot ball before Ford finished off the over with another four to move to 29 runs and advance his team’s total to 65.

Ford eventually departed for a game-best 31 and the side’s tail combined for 19 more runs to help guide RSL to 88 from 19.1 overs.

Tourist Hotel’s best with the ball was Eames (3-15 from four overs), while Smith (3-32 from 3.1 overs) also claimed three wickets.
Manton (1-7 from four overs), Bodla (1-7 from three overs) and Max Smith (1-22 from four overs) also claimed a wicket each.

Tourist Hotel began the second innings on the front foot as Manton and his opening batting partner Luke Ensby combined for a 37-run opening-wicket partnership.

The chasing side was cruising in the eighth over when it required 52 runs for victory with 10 wickets in hand.

However, Karan Veer Dhiman claimed two big wickets during that over to remove Ensby (12) and Aaron Baker (2) which kick-started a Tourist Hotel collapse.

The Tourist men lost all 10 wickets at the expense of just 28 runs to fall 24 short of victory.

Manton top-scored with 25 runs before he was trapped in front by Ford in the 12th over which made the score 4-53.

The chasing side could only muster 12 more runs while it lost its six remaining wickets as RSL celebrated victory midway through the 20th over.

Ford and O’Connor both took 3-8 from four overs and were the side’s best with the ball.

Karan (2-11 from four overs) claimed two scalps while Saunders (1-5 from two overs) and Harry Pattison (1-13 from 3.4 overs) took one each.

RSL went into Friday night’s match having won the previous two T20 deciders as well as the three most recent one day competition finals.

It was also a seventh consecutive grand final appearance for the side, dating back to February 2, 2019, when the club went down against Tatts in the 2018-19 season second grade T20 final.

RSL has now turned its attention to its search of a fourth consecutive second grade one day competition premiership.

It is winless in that competition in the 2021-22 campaign following a washed out draw and back-to-back losses, but will be determined to get its premiership defence back on track in round four this Saturday when it meets Tourist Hotel at Gately Field.

The other round four second grade one day competition match will be played at Hogan Oval between Tatts and Tourist Sports Bar.