The Hounds lost the match by three wickets, but were courageous in defeat after the game went down to the final over.
Earlier in the day it looked as if the Spitfires would waltz to victory in their debut season, but a spirited fightback led by Hounds bowlers Michael Archer (2-17 from four overs) and Anthony McMahon (2-13 from four) helped make the match an even contest.
After winning the toss and electing to bat, the Hounds found themselves in a spot of bother at 7-76 in the 12th over.
From there it was effectively a Kobyn James rescue mission as he managed to guide his side through the last eight overs to get the Hounds to a competitive total of 122.
However, the match seemed to be heading one way after the Spitfires started their innings with a bang, scoring 37 runs across the first four overs.
It wasn’t until league’s leading wicket-taker, Archer, came on that the Hounds took their first wicket and began to claw their way back into the match.
From there, the Hounds began to hunt as a pack, with a steady stream of wickets falling across the next 10 overs to leave the Spitfires on 7-78, needing 35 runs from 34 balls for the win.
The situation looked particularly dire for the Spitfires at that stage after they had lost former Big Bash League batter (Renegades and Stars) James Seymour for 25 runs.
But, while it all seemed to be slipping away for the Spitfires, Kayle Thompson produced a match-winning performance with the bat as he struck 42 not out from 29 balls (two fours and three sixes) to help the Bendigo side win with five balls to spare.
Sporties Spitfires owner Travis Harling spoke highly of Thompson’s man-of-the-match performance as he believed the young batter’s ability to find boundaries was critical in easing the pressure.
“He got a couple of big ‘Dorothy Dixes’ there at the end; a run a ball for five or six overs gets a bit tight, but when you start hitting a couple of sixes and fours, it takes the pressure off,” he said.
“He was able to do that and when the pace came back on the ball it was a bit easier to do that than against the spinners.”
Qualifying for the final did present the Spitfires with a bit of an administrator dilemma as the team was due to compete in the Melbourne Country Week competition, which began the following day.
But Harling said his side still wanted to compete in the final as it knew how important it was for competitions like these to remain strong in regional Victoria.
“It’s a great venue, great spectacle ... the competition is next level for country cricket,” he said.
“We’ll be back next year. This year we were sort of contemplating the idea of putting a team in and then when we made the decision it was really a bit of a lead up for our country week squad to get together and play some high level cricket.
“Obviously, with Dave D’Elia (GVBBL president) coming along to Northern Rivers meetings for a number of years talking about it, we were always interested about what the concept was.
“When he contacted us to see if anyone in Bendigo was interested in a franchise we certainly put our hand up as the association.”
This was the fourth edition of the competition with the Spitfires joining the Hounds and SRP Mud Dogs (x2) as premiers of the competition.
6°C