Day of drama encapsulates final round of DDBBL

An incredible finish to the Darling Downs Bush Bash League came down to the final ball of the regular season to determine the three finalists.

George Banks Umbrellas player Daniel Wilson takes a catch to remove Liam Moffett of Liebke Lions in Darling Downs Bush Bash League (DDBBL) round five T20 cricket at Highfields Sport Park, Sunday, Sunday, October 20, 2019. Picture: Kevin Farmer

CRICKET: A captivating final round of Darling Downs Bush Bash League action has gone down to the final overs as all six teams looked to book their spot in the finals.

It started with a battle between first and second, with the Livewired Lightning taking on the benchmark of the competition to date, the Valley Raptors.

Determined to take luck out of the picture, the Lightning were electric as they opened the batting against the Raptors.

Jack Potter and Anthony Wilson set the tone early with a 55-run partnership, before Kris Glass produced one of the knocks of the tournament when his team needed it the most.

Glass (79* off 46) hit eight boundaries, including four sixes, as he led the Lightning to a tournament-high score of 3-184.

The Raptors were progressing nicely through their chase, as they pushed on to 3-108 on the back of a strong Jack Wood (54 off 27) knock.

Then Sam Neale made his mark, with three wickets in the space of two overs to leave the Raptors reeling at 6-121.

They were unable to recover, ending their run at 8-151 to give the Lightning a 33-run victory, and top spot on the ladder.

The George Banks Umbrellas moved up to third courtesy of a five-wicket victory over the Liebke Lions.

The Lions were sent in to bat and started strongly with Darren Koch (62*) carrying his bat through the innings, as they posted a total of 4-142.

After the early dismissal of both openers, the Umbrellas settled through Darren Wilson (48), with captain Chris Hall (32) also chipping in as they chased down the total with four balls remaining.

Umbrellas take on Lions

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It all came down to the final match of the afternoon, with both the Aidacare Aztecs and Hip Pocket Rockets having the chance to secure a finals berth and remove the Umbrellas from the picture.

After being sent in to bat, the Aztecs started strongly through Troy Gurski's quick-fire 28, before their innings came crashing down.

Nobody else was able to get into the runs, as three wickets to John Cleary helped dismiss them for 92.

The Rockets started strongly with Blake Anderson (26) leading the way, before a mid-order collapse saw them under the pump at 8-75.

That brought Jace Hudson to the crease, who had to be called in from beyond the 15-man squad due to player unavailability.

His addition proved to be a masterstroke, scoring an unbeaten 17 and helping his side to a one-wicket win.

Ultimately it wasn't enough to secure a finals spot, with their net run rate of -0.0894 falling just short of the Umbrellas (-0.0685).

"When the Rockets went into bat, they needed to get their runs in 16.2 overs to progress through to the finals," competition co-ordinator Kent Reimers said.

"It took them 16.4, so they were two balls shy of what they needed, For the Aztecs they needed to bowl the Rockets out for 75.

"The amazing thing was on the last ball with scores tied, they hit it for a single to third man.

"If it went to the boundary for four instead of a single, that would've been enough for their net run rate to overtake the Umbrellas."

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