BLU does title double

BLU competed in the quarter-finals in November, defeating Cobram by five wickets to book its ticket to grand final day on Sunday, January 25, in Bendigo, with the semi-final and grand final matches held back-to-back.

Captain Regis Chakabva said it was a great feeling for his squad to grab another trophy in the short-form game

“Having won the Thursday GMC comp, it was really nice to cross the line,” he said.

“Then obviously to go to the Kookaburra Cup, which is in some sense a bigger competition because it's the wider Northern Rivers Association, and to win against a Bendigo side in the end, it was really good.”

BLU took on United from the EVCA in the semi-final round and picked up a comprehensive nine-wicket win to surge into the final.

United was held to 6-122 from its 20 overs, the Lions’ Noah Turner (2-26), Kade Pearse (1-18) and Jeremy Felmingham (1-26) all wicket-takers, while Luke Thompson was part of two Rochester run outs.

In response, Chakabva put the innings on his back, belting 13 boundaries in a knock of 84 unbeaten from 54 balls, his side reaching the total in 15.2 overs.

It set up a title showdown with Strathfieldsaye Jets from the BDCA, who got past Strathdale-Maristians in the other semi-final.

The Lions won the toss and elected to chase again, Strathfieldsaye putting together an innings of 3-149.

Thompson was damaging and miserly with the ball, taking 2-17, an economy of 4.25 an over, including the innings’ only maiden.

Pearse grabbed the other wicket.

The Lions burnt through wickets in an attempt to buy runs and the strategy paid off as each of the top five made starts.

Joel Felmingham (39), Chakabva (26), Woody Wilson (22), Thompson (23) and Prateer Mehta (19) made good scores at a decent clip, although it was an uncomfortable conclusion as BLU lost two wickets in the penultimate over to go eight down.

With two still required from the last, Jeremy Felmingham and Brett Mundie held their nerve to guide BLU to the trophy.

“Needing 150, we just took it from that perspective where we only needed another half a run per over on average (compared to the semi-final),” Chakabva said.

“In the grand scheme, chasing six (per over) in the first game and six and a half in the second game meant that we didn’t need to change a whole lot.

“Thinking around those lines and just putting it into perspective definitely made it not feel like such a tall order.

“It was really good to get the kind of start that we did and then for everyone else who came in, even though we went under pressure a little bit at the back end when we lost a few wickets, we held our nerve to still cross the line which was brilliant.”

Thompson was named player of the final after a good showing with bat and ball.

Having now grabbed three T20 trophies in two years, Chakabva said his side’s success comes down to batting to the conditions and assessing the best strategy to attack an innings.

“When you're chasing a low total, sometimes it's not all about aggression, it's just trying to go through the phases,” he said.

“When we played Ky (in the GMC final) the wicket was a little bit on the tricky side and it wasn't exactly the kind of wicket that you would be successful being over the top aggressive.

“So us putting on 120, even though we thought it might have been a little low, it ended up being a match-winning total in the end, so I think it was probably more just adjusting to the situations presented on the day, and on Thursday (in the GMC) we did that well and on Sunday as well.”

After also defending its GMC T20 crown this season, BLU will now be looking to complete a historic treble as it sets its sights on the McMahon Shield.

“We have to take each day, each game as it comes at the moment and we need to make sure that we’re not complacent,” Chakabva said.

“We (want to) finish nicely in the top four and wherever we are in the top four as long as we give ourselves that chance to be in the semi then we take that game as it comes as well and just try and do our best on the day.

“The boys have been doing really well and we’ve just been trying to work on keeping simple plans and executing the best that we can with simple plans.

“It's gone well for us so far and, hopefully, we have a strong finish.”