Mulgrave to host Ashburton Willows in Kookaburra T20 Cup Grand Final. Match Reports

Mulgrave will host Ashburton in the Kookaburra T20 Cup Grand Final on Feb 18th after their nail biting win over Edinburgh. PlayHQ Scorecard.

Electing to bat first at home on a warm evening at Mulgrave Reserve, the hosts had an early scare with George Pritchard (2/24) too quick for Nick Parker, bowling the opener on the second ball of the match. Mulgrave were able to steady a little, but boundaries were still pretty hard to come by on the back of tight bowling by Edinburgh.
Mulgrave's other opener Jordan Stephens (40 from 43 balls) built a solid innings with some nice shots around the ground to top score for the match, but rode his luck (In what could have been the difference in the close finish) as Edinburgh dropped several outfield catches before the safe hands of captain Suraj Kaluhalamulla brought an end to Stephens innings as bowler Gregour Carr (3/26) was able to pick up his third straight wicket. 
With the score at 5/89 with just three overs remaining, Edinburgh were confident they could keep the hosts under 100, but late hitting by Matthew Maiolo (16* - with 2 sixes) helped put a defendable 6/118 on the board.

Regardless, Mulgrave needed early wickets to build the pressure and Jai Allman (1/29) did just that, with a wicket on the final ball of the first over to bring the all-important home crowd support into the match.
There was no let up from the bowlers as Kaluhalamulla soon after failed to get onto a clean pull shot, hitting the ball straight up into the air and rewarding Zac Rahman (2/21) with the prized captains wicket.
At 2/15 the dot ball pressure built, so George Pritchard (22 from 14 balls) took upon himself to lift the run rate and treated spectators with two massive sixes. But he was unable to hit Mulgrave's skipper Callum Hope (1/24) over cover, with Maiolo taking the clean catch and ending the entertaining cameo.
With each bowler that came on for Mulgrave, the Edinburgh batters struggled to realease the pressure and wickets kept falling - Jordan Wilkinson (2/23) and Lucas Grima (2/9 from 3 overs) tearing the middle order apart.
Xavier Di Scala (32* from 32 balls) batted well despite seeing six of his teammates dismissed at the other end, but was hitting clean shots to fielders on the boundary and the pressure of the required run rate continued to soar.
Di Scala kept his cool and started the last over with a tough 14 runs to get, although after a first ball 4, suddenly 10 off 5 felt very achieveable.
But full credit should go to the nerves-of-steel from Jai Allman who followed that ball up with dot, one, one bye, dot, and one to secure the six run victory for Mulgrave and hosting rights for the Kookaburra T20 Cup Grand Final.

Ashburton Willows scored an impressive win at home against Fitzroy Doncaster in their Kookaburra T20 Cup Semi Final. They will play Mulgrave at Mulgrave in the final on Tuesday 18th February. Play HQ Scorecard

Fitzroy Doncaster won the toss and elected to bat first in ideal batting conditions at the Ashburton Park oval. The game started in very warm conditions for the bowling side with a brisk cross-breeze. They made a positive start, jumping on the loose deliveries - with traditional cover drives and straight hits a delight for the purists in the crowd. Despite disciplined bowling, they kept the score ticking along on the quick and expansive Ashburton Park oval. Ashburton’s bowlers kept bowling good areas and were rewarded as the innings progressed. Skipper Chris Barr (3/25) and Paul Ewart (3/22) made regular breakthroughs - forcing the young Lion’s batters into some rash shots (even by T20 standards) and they were backed up by the fielders. The deck didn’t look to have any demons, so the 132 posted by Fitzroy Doncaster looked light-on.

In response, Fitzroy Doncaster's bowlers were sloppy by their standards, conceding wides and no balls (15 for the innings) to take pressure off the opening pair of Thusith De soysa (20 to go with his 2 wickets) and Nathan Pietsch. At 1/30 after about 5 overs, AW were well placed. Udaya Rodrigo hit an entertaining 21 (four boundaries) while Chirs Knights (31) cashed in with consecutive sixes (the second onto Vears Road over square via a free hit).  With less than a run a ball needed, the left hand/right hand combo of Shehan Vitharana (15*) and Anuj Hemnani (19*) did the job in the rapidly-fading light much to the delight of the home crowd.

* Please note at time of writing the Fitzroy Doncaster's innings was not updated in PlayHQ and I cannot reference the names of their players in this report

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