The first ever Grand Final tickets for the Millicent Naracoorte Cricket Association will be handed out this weekend as the new competition gets serious on Saturday.
Rendelsham enters the semi-finals as favourites after dominating the minor-round season winning all 11 games.
The secret behind the success has been the big bats of Zach Jones and Jake Wight, who are the only players in the entire association to surpass the 300-run mark.
Both stars have centuries under their belts and will be at the top of Townies’ hit list.
Townies was forced to endure a rougher ride into finals and managed to scrape in after holding on in a thrilling nine-run win over cross-town rivals Warriors last week.
Townies’ captain Matt Smith rose to the occasion and played an innings of a leader with his 110-ball 87 steering his team to a competitive score.
Strong support from Rowan Ham and Joshua Bull ensured the side posted a competitive 7/173 from its 40 overs.
The Townies’ has strength in numbers with 10 of its 11 players being introduced into the bowling attack.
Even though all seven Warriors batters reached double figures and got starts, but tight bowling from Jasprit Singh, Waar Hussain and Drew Myall kept Warriors at bay to seal the finals berth.
Despite the success of the final round, a new challenge lies ahead for Townies following a 33-run defeat to Rendelsham in round 10 where Jones and Mason Redman starred for the latter.
Run scoring for the Townies batting order led by Smith will prove difficult being forced to answer the probing questions of Jacob Carger and Max Telfer.
Carger and Telfer have collected 19 and 16 wickets each respectively and both boasted sub-seven averages.
Millicent and Mount Burr will lock horns at Norm Facey Oval for what shapes up to be a close encounter.
Only one premiership point separated the rivals on the ladder after they both collected seven wins each.
Millicent’s trump card is its bowling attack which takes up three of the top five wicket takers in the entire competition.
Sam Hunt, Jacob Todd and Michael Gibson have all been consistently potent with the Kookaburra with the former the only man to take more than 20 poles across the summer.
Mount Burr’s stars may not be quite as high on the list, but it still possesses plenty of quality through the likes of Kallan Bevan, Mark Wright and Nathan Muhovics.
They will be looking to stop the likes of Todd and Jaxon Cushion who are the leading lights for Millicent with the blade.
Bevan may have just fallen short of the 200-run marker for the season, but remains an integral part of Mount Burr’s top order and he will be turning to Muhovics and Jack Francis for support.
Millicent and Mount Burr are familiar foes after they just faced off in the previous round where the former took home the chocolates away from home.
Only Jack Francis could offer a significant amount of resistance for Mount Burr with the bat as his side battled to 9/131, while Todd did the damage with the ball taking 3/29.
A sudden collapse of 4/8 left the Millicent dressing room full of nerves, but Cooper Hamilton and Kobe Gibson turned the tide and compiled a match-winning stand.
Hamilton was the star scoring 55* as he guided Millicent home by six wickets to gain some bragging rights ahead of the big clash this weekend.
With no previous form guide the stage is set for some new chapters to be written.
