Regional Bash: Newcastle claims T20 double after winning men’s and women’s titles

One region has reaffirmed its status the dominant force in NSW country cricket after a stunning clean sweep of the regional T20 finals.

The Newcastle Blasters claimed back-to-back T20 titles at the SCG. Picture: Newcastle Cricket Zone

Newcastle has reaffirmed its status as the dominant force in NSW country cricket after taking out a clean sweep of both the men’s and women’s country T20 titles.

In the finals played at the SCG, the Newcastle Blasters went back to back after defeating the Western Outlaws by eight wickets in the women’s Regional Bash final, while the men made it a perfect day by also defeating Western by 11 runs in an entertaining decider.

It continued the zone’s dominance of country cricket in recent times. In addition to the women’s team winning back-to-back T20 titles and the men taking out the T20 crown, the open men’s side has the chance to win an unprecedented sixth-straight 50-over country championship title after qualifying for this summer’s final.

“I think the senior competition, especially the top level, is really good. The top six or seven teams in Newcastle are really good in the men’s,” said Newcastle women’s coach Tom Anderson.

“And in the women’s they’ve really pushed over the last 10 years to improve women’s cricket in Newcastle and it’s been outstanding, to be quite honest, and I can’t wait to see how far we can all go in the next couple of years.”

Newcastle won its fifth-straight Country Championships final last summer. Photo: Alex Pichaloff

The day started off in dominant fashion in the women’s T20 final as Newcastle blew Western away with the ball, bowling the Outlaws out for just 62.

In an excellent display of fielding, the Blasters remarkably ran out three Outlaws players while four were dismissed for ducks as Abbey Taylor picked up 3-5 and Tara French ripped open the top order with 2-11.

And while Newcastle lost a couple of early wickets, the victory was never in doubt as the team chased down the total in the 13th over, with Clare Miller top scoring with 33 not out and Molly Dare finishing on 21 not out.

“We’ve got a very good team, and even two of our best weren’t available,” said Anderson.

“Caoimhe Bray was allowed to play but got called up to NSW, so that ruled her out, and Kirsten Smith had booked a white Christmas in Canada so she wasn’t there either.

“But we’re a really good team: we’ve got three or four under-16 state players, under-19s state players and people that have been around the system for a long time.”

The men then finished the job in the afternoon with an 11-run win over Western.

With his team batting first, Newcastle opener Dylan Hunter set the tone with a scintillating 49 from 41 balls. And while Logan Weston (26) and Jeffrey Goninan (22) made handy contributions, some smart cricket at the end from Daniel Arms (19 not out) and Ben Balcomb (15 not out) pushed the side to a strong total of 5-153.

And while Newcastle was in control for much of the game, a blistering 50 from just 30 balls from Western’s Marty Jeffrey and some late hitting from Lachlan Rummans (18 from eight balls) tightened things before Western was bowled out for 142 with three balls remaining.

Leg-spinner Aaron Bills capped off a fine tournament with figures of 3-31 form four overs while Hunter put a cherry on his man-of-the-match performance with 2-10 from three.

“It was a good day,” said Newcastle skipper Nick Foster. “We’ve done pretty well over the years in the prior formats and I think we deserved it. We played pretty well and I know it got a little bit tight at the end but I think it was manageable the whole way through.”

The victory continues Newcastle’s stranglehold on senior men’s country cricket, with the team adding the T20 crown to its five consecutive 50-over country championship titles.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, eight Newcastle players were picked in the NSW Country team, the Bush Breakers, for this summer’s Australian Country Championships, to be played in the Barossa Valley.

“Most of us have been playing together for a long time now and we know each other pretty well. We’ve got a good amount of stability through our squad and that definitely shows with results,” said Foster.

“Probably the biggest thing that we’ve got in our favour is the depth and I think that serves us pretty well whenever we do seem to get ourselves in tight spots and other teams do have periods where they play well – we usually are able to find our way out of those tough periods.”

In particular, Newcastle has benefited from its incredible five-pronged spin attack of Foster, Hunter, Aaron Bills, Daniel Chillingworth and Adrian Isherwood, which has proven to be incredibly effective for the side.

In addition to two run outs, Newcastle’s spinners picked up seven of Western’s remaining eight wickets in the final, with all bar five overs bowled by tweakers. Over the course of the tournament, spinners took 25 of the team’s 30 wickets, with side pulling off three run-outs and quicks Daniel Williams and Pat Magann taking one wicket each.

“We’re a little bit blessed with that sort of stuff in Newcastle at the moment,” said Foster.

“Those five spinners, they’ve all played for NSW Country, so it’s a bit of an embarrassment of riches, really. We actually ended up bowling less spin than what we planned to (in the final). It was only as it got a little bit tighter at the back end that I changed my mind on what my plan was.

“I think it has served us really well. And it’s not as if we’re bowling spin for the sake of it; it’s genuinely where our strength lies. We’ve got five really quality spinners, it’s a case of bowling your best bowlers and as captain that’s the way I’ve approached it.”

MATCH REPORT: BLASTERS GO BACK TO BACK

The Newcastle Blasters have maintained their status as the best in the bush after a dominant eight-wicket victory over the Western Outlaws in the Regional Bash T20 final at the SCG.

A stunning bowling performance that saw four Western players dismissed for ducks, three players run out and allowed just two to move into double figures laid the platform for the win as Newcastle bowled their rivals out for just 62.

The Blasters then made light work of the total, cruising past the total in just 12.1 overs and with eight wickets in the shed.

Clare Webber top scored with unbeaten 33 from as many balls while Molly Dare finished on 21 not out.

It capped off a dominant tournament by Newcastle, which won its three preliminary group games by 10 wickets, 31 runs and 20 runs respectively on its way to back-to-back titles.

Clare Webber top scored with 33 not out. Photo: Thomas Lisson.

Winning the toss and electing to bowl, Newcastle got off to a great start when some sharp work in the field from Emma-Jayne Howe resulted in the run out of Western opener Maddison Spence in the second over.

Things then got better for Newcastle when young quick Tara French took two wickets in her next over to leave Western reeling at 3-6 after three overs.

Runs were incredibly hard to come by, and when Kate McTaggart clean bowled Romaine Trenerry Western had its third duck and the team was reduced to 4-14.

While Newcastle was right on top, Abbey Taylor helped the team ram home its advantage.

The spinner took three wickets to finish with the excellent figures of 3-5 from three overs, while another two run outs saw Western cleaned up for just 62.

Tara French picked up two wickets. Picture: Brody Grogan

While only chasing a small total, Newcastle got off to a disastrous start, with opener Kelsey Miller bowled out for four with just with fifth ball of the innings.

It went from bad to worse in the very next ball as Newcastle skipper McTaggart got a top edge and was caught at cover for a golden duck.

Although Newcastle was struggling at 2-4, Webber and Dare made sure there was never any risk of an upset as they chewed into the total.

Webber in particular looked in fine touch while Dare rotated the strike nicely.

It was apt that Webber finished the job with a boundary as Newcastle went past the total after just 12.1 overs.

Western Outlaws 10-62 (Johnson 16, Harrison 15; Taylor 3-5, French 2-11) lost to Newcastle Blasters 2-64 (Webber 33*, Dare 21*; Griffith 2-11) by eight wickets