The first ever Millicent and Naracoorte Cricket Association trophy is up for grabs this Saturday when Rendelsham and Millicent face off in the inaugural Grand Final.
The rivals will face off at Rendelsham from 12.30pm this Saturday afternoon and fly into the big contest with the wind behind their backs after crushing semi-final victories.
Enjoying the home ground advantage, Rendelsham is the overwhelming favourite having enjoyed a faultless summer so far.
The side led by captain Jake Wight has not put a foot wrong and saved its most complete performance for the semi-final to send a massive warning Millicent’s way.
Coming up against Townies, Rendelsham did not show any sympathy scoring a crushing 207-run win.
Despite the blowout margin, it was not all smooth sailing after Brodie Foster removed Sam Telfer for a duck.
But for the remainder of the afternoon, Townies hardly enjoyed a moment worthy of celebration.
Zach Jones was a man on a mission opening the batting and got the innings going with a huge maximum off Josh Bull.
The opener then went about taking down the bowlers in dismissive fashion, smashing boundaries all over the ground to dominate a 74-run stand alongside Dylan Clough which set the game up.
Despite Sam Henschke extracting a mistake from Clough on 29, the breakthrough only brought about more pain for Townies as Rendelsham skipper Wight walked to the crease.
Determined to stand up in the big contest, Wight was in no mood to mess around and took the game out of Townies’ reach.
After 30 overs the scoreboard read 2/139, but in the space of just 24 balls, 65 more runs had been added to the total.
Wight and Jones teed off to push the score beyond the magical 200-run landmark, while Jones brought up a celebrated century.
Despite Jones’ innings coming to an end on 103 due to Rowan Ham, Wight continued to put the foot down.
No matter where the Townies attack bowled, the Rendelsham captain sent it to and beyond the boundary rope.
Wight’s devastating display of power hitting finished on an almighty 147 which helped Rendelsham smash 96 runs off the final five overs.
The stunning assault on the bowling helped the home side post a ridiculous 4/312 from its 40 overs – a target so big the Townies had little hope of chasing.
Their chances nosedived even further when the scoreboard read 3/24 after Tyson Smith and Jacob Carger did some damage with the new ball.
Josh Moyle (22) and Ham (35) offered some resistance to get Townies a third of the way home, but once they fell the run chase crumbled.
Townies lost 4/2 to finish the season in meek fashion as Smith and Clough completed the demolition job.
Rendelsham’s 207-run win was easily the highest of the season and sends a massive warning to its upcoming Grand Final opponent Millicent.
But Millicent is also hyped up after controlling its semi-final clash against Mount Burr.
Bowling first Millicent showed no mercy as Jaxon Cushion, Jacob Todd and Michael Gibson tore the Mount Burr to order to shreds.
Only Kallan Bevan and Mark Wright provided any fight being the only batters to reach double figures with the former carrying the side on his shoulders scoring 40.
But Mount Burr could not resist Millicent’s pressure and crumbled to 113 all out from 39.3 overs.
Gibson was the star with the ball taking 4/12 from eight overs.
Despite small totals being tricky to chase at times, there were no such concerns for Millicent as all members of its top four enjoyed valuable time at the crease.
Todd led the way scoring 40, while opening partner Mitchell Nitschke made 34 to complete a comfortable eight-wicket win with 15.2 overs remaining.
The big wins set the scene for a captivating final.
The previous clash between the two sides was an intriguing affair where Millicent looked on course to hunt down Rendelsham’s benchmark of 194.
But a collapse of 4/9 orchestrated by Clough saved the day for Rendelsham.
With the two best teams meeting in the big one, the battle lines are drawn for a fight to the death.
