St Pat's Old Boys have endured a bumpy 2019-20 Royal Hotel Cup campaign, but the defending champions have scrapped into finals and have a tough ask on Friday night.
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Saints will travel to Orange's Wade Park but they face the daunting task of knocking-off undefeated ladder leaders CYMS on their own turf.
But they're not fazed by the task at hand, as the Saints boys look to keep the Royal Hotel Cup trophy in Bathurst for the third consecutive season and away from Orange for a fourth campaign running.
In fact the Saints team thought they were expecting to play finals, but after Centennials Bulls had a narrow four run win over Lithgow Lightning, it was enough to keep the defending champions in fourth spot and a precious play-off spot.
Saints skipper Adam Ryan said he was surprised to find out that results went his team's way.
"Had Lithgow won, they would've went through but if Bulls had won by more and got their percentage up, they would've went through. With only four runs in the Lithgow game, it's crazy how Twenty20 works and that we now have a shot," he said.
"If Bathurst City had lost as many wickets in their last match, they would've went through.
"We had no expectations. We just had our eyes set on winning our game and then all of a sudden, we find out we're in the finals. A bit of a weird, but we'll thank our lucky stars for that one."
Ryan said his side is likely to be at the strongest it has been all season in the Royal Hotel Cup.
"We're really excited about the cup considering we thought we weren't going to be in the finals," he said.
"The really good part for us is we probably have our strongest side going into the match. It's a headache as a selector to figure out who's going to play. It's good to have everyone playing.
"CYMS are red hot in this format and we'll have to play really good cricket if we want to compete with them.
"We'll definitely be doing our best, if we bat first, to hit 160-odd. That's been our favourite score and our goal. We'll bowl really well to defend that."
The winner will progress to the final on February 28 and will play the winner of Orange City or Cavaliers on February 21.
The Royal Hotel Cup is the sponsorship name for the tournament, the competition actually called the George Bonnor Cup, named after Orange's first Test cricketer.
It started as a day-night 40 over-competition in 1990-91 and made the switch to Twenty20 for the 2012-13 season.
- ST PAT'S OLD BOYS: Adam Ryan (captain), Andrew Brown, Connor Slattery, Ben Parsons, Mitch Taylor, Cooper Brien, Bailey Brien, Ethan Ivory, Jameel Qureshi, David Cant, Ben Cant, Matt Fearnley