T20 champions to be crowned at Collins Park on Saturday

Narrabri District Cricket Association’s T20 competition champions will be crowned at Collins Park this Saturday when the second grade decider and the Coates Hire Namoi T20 Super Slog grand final are contested.

Kicking off proceedings will be the second grade contest, which will see defending champions RSL take on the minor premiers Tatts. That match will be played from 3.30pm, before the Super Slog final between Specialised Civil Services and Priag Patriots begins at 7.30pm.

The NDCA board is expecting two entertaining grand finals to be fought out and advised there would also be entertainment off the field.

Greg ‘The Hat’ Henry will be back with music and entertainment, as has been a popular feature of past grand finals and NDCA charity games.

The crowd catch is also back, with a $200 prize on offer for the first person to hold onto a ball that is hit for six by one of the players in the Super Slog grand final.

That match should be a cracker as the two form teams across the past three seasons go head-to-head.

Specialised Civil Services were the inaugural champions, and then Priag Patriots won the grand final in season two.

They both enter this season’s grand final in form, having prevailed in their round six games last Friday to secure the top two spots.

The two teams both finished on 30 points following four wins and two losses each, however, the defending champions claimed top spot based on a formula that takes into account the number of runs teams have scored and conceded and the number of wickets they have taken and lost.

In fact, the only thing really splitting them is the head-to-head battle. Specialised Civil Services’ two losses both came at the hands of the Patriots this season.

The Priag men won by eight wickets in round two back in December when they chased down 77 runs in 15.1 overs having lost just two wickets. The Patriots then prevailed by 69 runs in round five earlier this month when they bowled Specialised Civil Services out for 53 runs in 14.5 overs after making 6-122 in the game’s first innings.

Priag Patriots’ captain Cooper Brayshaw and Specialised Civil Services’ captain Lachlan Woolford both told The Courier that they were proud of their sides for reaching the decider and that they were confident going into this Saturday’s match.

Meanwhile, Tatts Cricket Club goes into the second grade final in form. The side is on a three-game winning streak after it lost its opening game of the season, while RSL won just one of its four games this season to go with two losses and a washed-out draw.

The match is expected to be a hard-fought one, given the fact the two sides brought the best out of each other in their two meetings during the regular season.

Tatts won both, prevailing by three runs in round three in a game that went down to the final over and then by three wickets in round five in a match that went down to the second last over.

RSL goes into the game having won the past three T20 premierships.