There was a lot on the line in the game between Golf Club and Empire in the 40 Overs cricket competition on Saturday with the outcome to decide who would play in the grand final.
In this competition, the top two teams directly qualify for the grand final and despite one more round to be played next week, Nymagee has already qualified.
Last week’s game would decide who would meet Nymagee in the grand final.
Empire posted a big score of 221 which Golf Club failed to match and so Empire booked their grand final berth.
If Golf Club had won, they would have qualified for the grand final no matter what the results of the final game between Nymagee and Empire next week. Since Empire won on Saturday, they moved within two points of Golf Club. Golf Club has no more games, so they can’t score any more points this season.
The scoring system works as such: 3 points for a loss, 7 for a win, 0 if you forfeit. So, Empire only need to turn up next week against Nymagee to score three more points, and they will finish one point ahead of Golf Club’s total to place second and advance to the grand final.
In Saturday’s game, Golf Club won the toss and sent Empire into bat. It was a decision they would regret as Empire posted a very competitive score of 7/221 from their 40 overs.
Openers Jay Egan (34) and Travis Dunlevy (19) got Empire off to a solid start putting on 61 before both their wickets fell in the space of two overs.
Any hope Golf Club may have had of keeping Empire to a low total was dashed by big hitters Jake Harbison (57) and Robbie Mitchell (60). Both scored half-centuries and shared in a 112-run partnership to guide Empire to their imposing total.
Josh Brown 3/39 and Ishtiak Pulock 2/46 returned the best bowling figures for Golf Club.
In reply, Golf Club was bowled out for 95.
Slade Neale (3/26) skittled the Golf Club top-order batters while Darryl Curtis (4/26) ripped through the middle order.
Josh Brown (21), Scott Toomey (14) and Will Whitton (13) were the only batsmen to score in double figures.—contributed
