St Pat's chase their fourth BOIDC win in a row in order to make a grand final return

St Pat's Old Boys go into this Saturday's preliminary final against Rugby Union as the competition's momentum side, with a victory over the waiting grand finalists Cavaliers part of that recent winning run.

The Saints were clinical in their recent dismantling of City Colts and are looking to take more of that brand of cricket into this clash.

Pat's skipper Adam Ryan said a date with Rugby is a game that always delivers on quality.

"It's a match we always look forward to, and it's one that we thought would have made for a great grand final but that wasn't to be, because both of us didn't perform where we needed to in order to get to that

"These two teams boast a lot of the rep players so it's funny how it's played out that they're the two teams still cracking along in finals. We're just so excited about this time of year, and prospect of knockout cricket is fun and it brings the best out of everyone."

Gaining momentum is always a positive in the eyes of Ryan but he doesn't want it to lead to any sense of complacency from his side.

"We come in with momentum and confidence on the back of our last games," he said.

"But again, you learn a lot from a loss and you can get complacent from a win. We just want to keep things as simple as possible, regardless of who we're playing."

The semi-final success over Colts was the Saints producing some of their best cricket of the season, with the likes of Nic Broes, Matt Fearnley and Connor Slattery all stepping up for the occasion.

Broes hit 62 in a century partnership with Andrew Brown to set up the successful chase while Fearnley and Slattery each took three wickets.

It's that continual rotation of standout players week after week that has been one of the high points of the season for Ryan.

"I think the way we went about that last game - getting to the 100 with all our wickets still in hand, and plenty of overs left to chase - let's us know that we've got extra gears there.

"It's great to still see multiple contributors. We've seen great versality through to team from one through to 12, with bat and ball. It certainly makes my job easier when I know something's not working and we can throw something different at the problem.

"Our spinners have done a great job in this shorter format of building pressure through the middle overs."

Pat's are still in the hunt for the Bonnor Cup-BOIDC double.

The match at George Park 1 will get underway from 11am.

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