Western Zone Premier League: Bathurst earns hosting rights for grand final following win over Mid West

Bathurst's one-sided success against Mid West in the last round of Western Zone Premier League has given them hosting rights for this Sunday's grand final against Dubbo.

Courtesy of Dubbo's loss on the weekend to Cowra, Bathurst's nine-wicket thumping of the Mid West men on Sunday at the Sportsground allowed them to jump to the top of the ladder and now gives them the chance to win back-to-back WZPL titles on home turf.

All five Bathurst bowlers claimed wickets as they cleaned up Mid West for 116 runs before an unbeaten 98-run stand between Joey Coughlan (52 not out) and Adam Ryan (38 not out) saw the hosts chase the target within 18 overs.

Bathurst set out to win their last game with the biggest margin possible, since a Dubbo victory on Sunday would see the battle for the minor premiership come down to net run rate.

However, it didn't end up coming into calculation, and Bathurst captain Adam Ryan said it's a thrill to be able to bring the decider to the Sportsground.

"it's massive. When you're playing cricket on a Saturday and then on the Sunday as well, and you have to get up at 6am to travel, that can be tough. And then there's the local knowledge of the pitches around your home town," he said.

"When you know how the pitches play that helps you when setting fields and structuring your batting lineup."

Bathurst had Mid West in a disastrous position of 5-32 before a lengthy innings from Cooper Martin (13 from 93 balls) and a short but sweet knock from number 10 batsman Lachlan Rayner (39 from 30 balls) gave the visitors something to defend.

Bathurst's 16 sundries were the second biggest contributor to Mid West's score behind Rayner's late effort.

Dave Henderson was excellent across his 10 overs, claiming team-best figures of 3-21, while opening duo Jack Goodsell (2-17) and Mitch Taylor (2-29) made light work of the Mid West top order.

Joey Coughlan (2-29) cleaned up the tail and Connor Slattery (1-15) eventually claimed Martin's wicket.

Henderson has now claimed 11 wickets across his past three matches for Bathurst in Western Zone Premier League.

Bathurst opening batsman Henry Shoemark (12) was bowled by Rayner (1-25) early in the chase but the run rate didn't die off once Ryan came into the middle.

Coughlan and Ryan hit nine boundaries between them as they seized upon every loose ball that came their way.

"It was a great day of play full of some great efforts from the boys. We really wanted to go in and play a good style of cricket going into the finals and we didn't want to be complacent," Ryan said.

"We pushed ourselves to keep our standard up and we certainly did that. We didn't rely on one person with the ball, and the attitude in the field was great. We cut a lot of potential twos in ones. It's great getting that going into next week.

"We tried to get a few guys into the batting lineup early, like Henry, Joey, myself and Peakers [Ryan Peacock] - who would have been in next - who are a bit more attacking in their approach. We didn't go too hard, we just hit the odd bad ball away."