Brighton CC – VSDCA T20 Champions!

The 1st XI mounted an unlikely set of victories last Sunday to yield the club our maiden VSDCA T20 Championship! Playing in difficult conditions at Balwyn we initially faced Brunswick (loaded with former Australian player Clint McKay) in the Semi Final.

We managed to post a small but competitive total of 8/96 with Ricky Damiano, Anique Uddin and Matt Hardy the main contributors on a slow wicket and lush outfield. The bowling performance was nothing short of superb with guest player Nathan McNally’s leg spin critical in tying down the Brunswick bats. The game came down to the last ball, with 3 needed for victory. Luke Shimmin’s nerves of steel came through inducing a play and miss which secured our victory.

Brighton CC 9/96 def Brunswick CC 9/94

Now for the final…and a date against former Captain/Coach Dale McDonald’s Williamstown.

We won the toss and once again batted. Early wickets tumbled with Damiano, Wilson, McNally, Rutter and Hardy all gone to leave us teetering at 5/35 after 10 overs. A superb display of placement and running between wickets from Andrew Martin, ably assisted by Jayce Morgan in the lower order helped us once again eke out a reasonable total, being all out for 97 with 1 ball to spare.

Williamstown came out swinging and looked likely of making short work of our target, buzzing along to be 0/61 at the half way mark of the innings. Here was where the fun started! Anique Uddin’s off-spin was superb, and well supported by Sam Hall-Kahan and Luke Shimmin we managed to take a staggering 7/16 leaving the game hanging in the balance once more. 4 runs were required off the final over which ended up with 2 wickets and only 3 to send us to a super over!

Brighton CC 10/97 drew Williamstown CC 9/97

After being asked to bowl a couple of clean blows from the WCC batsman meant we were set an imposing task of 12 runs to win. Enter Ricky Damiano…his huge 6 over mid-wicket on ball 3 shifted all the momentum and left Sean Wilson with the opportunity to be the hero. The tension was palpable, nerves fried, nails chewed, no-one in the crowd moving…and then the joy! One crunched straight drive down the ground and we were champions!!

Williamstown – 2-1-6-1-1-0 = 0/11
Brighton – 1-1-6-1-1-2 = 0/12

Click HERE to watch a huge rendition of the club song – our most viewed post ever on social media – now watched by just under 6000 people!