Lowerhouse v Church (Twenty20 Final)

Church edged past Lowerhouse for the third time this season on Friday night to claim the Twenty20 Trophy.

The visitors batted first and lost early wickets in their quest to set a strong target. Matt Walker dismissed both Aspin brothers in successive overs and Jon Finch got the key wicket of Levi Wolfenden. Professional Usman Tariq managed to muster 15 before falling to Cobus Pienaar. Craig Fergusson threatened to pull Church towards a large score but superbly caught and bowled by Walker for 24 as the pace man completed his 4 overs with good figures of 3/26.  Adam Greenwood (11), Sam Tucker (3) and Joel Gaskell (0) all departed without being able to gather momentum but a late powerful 46 not out from Phil Gilrane took Church to 132/8 off their 20 overs.

Lowerhouse’s response started well with Pienaar and Jonny Whiitehead scoring at 8 runs an over in the powerplay. Once that was over, however, Church started to claw their way back in contention by claiming 3 wickets for just 8 runs (Pienaar for 26, Whitehead for 12 and Ben Heap for 0).  Matt Walker and Charlie Cottam helped the hosts to regain control in the middle overs and got within 50 of the required target. This was at this moment. though, that the game started to swing in Church’s favour once. The introduction of Kamran Basharat brought Lowerhouse’s momentum to a complete halt by bowling out Walker for 22 with his very first ball. Further dismissals of Finch (6) and Ben Gorton (5) by Gaskill and Tariq meant the hosts needed an improbable 25 runs off the final over. Basharat restricted them to just 5 and also took the wickets of Cottam (27) and Paddy Martin (o) to finish with sterling figures of 3/12 off his overs as Lowerhouse closed on 113/8 off their 20 over, meaning Church won by 19 runs.

MOM was Matt Walker for his 3/26 and 22.

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