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RUGBY Union have claimed their fourth Bathurst District Cricket Association Twenty20 Cup crown in six seasons after winning a low-scoring thriller against Oxford Centennials B at George Park 1 on Monday night.
The competition’s most decorated side may have thought they had blown their opportunity after a blistering start with the bat was cancelled out by a lower order collapse, leaving them to defend just 111.
However, as they showed anything can happen in the shortest format of the game and they did enough to take the decider into the final over. Ox-Cents needed eight runs to win with two wickets in hand.
Rugby captain Chris Albon took the pressure of bowling the final six balls himself and managed to get the job done perfectly. He conceded a single and a two off the first four deliveries, before the desperate Ox-Cents tail
suffered consecutive run-outs off the last balls to fall four runs short of Rugby’s total.
“It was a very close game all the way,” Albon said.
“We won the toss and batted. We have chased well this season and restricted well when we’ve had to defend a score, but the fielding and bowling has been a real strength and we thought on a good pitch, if we could get a big score, we’d be able to defend it.
“Myself and Dean Watkins opened and we were going along quite well for a while. Watto was hitting them everywhere and we’d put on nearly 60 in the first five overs or so. Ox-Cents were bowling in one-over spells and we were scoring pretty freely.
“We lost Watto though for 37 and a couple more quick wickets, and once I got out for 20-odd, nobody really got going for the rest of the innings.”
Mick Holt was the best of the Ox-Cents bowlers with 3-29 while Andrew Brown and Warren Aubin each took two wickets.
Ryan Peacock (13), Peter Francis (12) and Ryan Newell (11 not out) were the best of the rest with the bat.
Albon admitted that he didn’t think his team’s total would be enough, but two wickets from the opening two balls of the Ox-Cents innings changed all that. The golden arm of James Tristram claimed key duo Brown and captain Blake Aubin to put them on the back foot.
Tom Loader tried to slog his team out of trouble with 25 and for a while it looked like it would work at 2-44, but none of the Ox-Cents batsmen could really build on some promising starts.
Kesh Pillai (14), Pete McCleary (18) and Jamie Wicks (21 not out) looked the most likely but they fell short.
“They got down to needing about 26 off the last six overs and Wicksy was probably the danger man at that point. But we kept it tight and it got down to the eight off the last over,” Albon said.
“It was a strange old match. The wicket up there is awesome to bat on, I think both teams basically got themselves out.
“It was great to get a win this year. We only really had a couple of first graders in the side, we came up against some very experienced players in the final and in a lot of matches, but our young players were very impressive. There are three or four of them around 15 or 16-years-old and they impressed every time they played. I’m very proud of them all.”
Meanwhile, completing an outstanding day for the Bulldogs name, Rugby Union Football Club took out a huge win in the Plate final.
Batting first Kelso Electrical managed 143 thanks mainly to 34 from Adam Ryan and 26 from Jock Cartwright, but it proved to be insufficient on a friendly George Park 2 surface.
Paul Miller led the way for Rugby, scoring 43 before he was the only wicket to fall. In-form Trent Fitzpatrick along with Steve Locke had no trouble getting their team home with only one wicket down.
Fitzpatrick finished unbeaten on 70 and Locke on 30, while Sean Healey produced one of the plays of the match when he removed Kelso danger men Aaron Taylor and Evan Jones in the first over of the game.