Wagga Sloggers are in the box seat to play on the Sydney Cricket Ground for the second year in a row after smashing the Border Bullets in Albury on Sunday.
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A strong crowd at Bilson Park were stunned as the Wagga side rolled through the supposedly unbeatable team for 97.
Wagga RSL bowler Nick Grant led the carnage, striking in the first over, before going on to finish with 3-19 off his four overs.
Captain Joel Robinson was thrilled with the team’s effort.
“It was a really good all round performance,” Robinson said.
“Granty was good and then the spinners came on and did their part and Maxy Harper as well. Everyone who had a chance to bowl did their part.”
The Wagga team looked in trouble at 4-71 before some late hitting saw them reach 6-161 at the end of the 20 overs.
Ninety nine runs in the last 10 overs made a big difference.
St Michaels recruit Michael Mitchell made an unbeaten 43 while quick fire innings from Josh Staines (28 off 18), Nathan Cooke (21 off nine) and Sam Whitfield (13 off 4) put the Sloggers in a strong position.
Brayden Ambler (28) and Matt Berkrey (27) also made strong contributions at the top of the order.
Robinson thought it still might have been a little short, but his bowlers rose to the challenge as the Bullets failed to get any partnerships going to chase them down.
“It is going to be tough when you have that run rate in the back of your mind,” he said. “We had a couple of tight overs with the wicket and the run rate kept building.
“It builds pressure, blokes bowled in the right spots and we fielded well and took all our catches.”
It is the second year in a row the Sloggers have beaten the Bullets.
There was plenty of talk before the match up suggesting Wagga had no chance of repeating last year’s performance, described as a “fluke” by selector Trent Ball.
However the team did just that.
Robinson was proud of how the youngsters stood up.
“The boys played really well,” Robinson said.
“It was one of the youngest rep teams I’ve been apart of.”
With this year’s competition a round robin, the Sloggers still need to perform against Southern Riverina Vipers and Murrumbidgee Rangers on November 5 to cement their place on the SCG.
Robinson is sure the team won’t get to far ahead of themselves.
“We haven’t played Southern Riverina for a fair few years but they have always been strong and Murrumbidgee put a couple of hundred on the board last year so we definitely aren’t thinking we are already there or anything like that,” he said. “We have two tough games to win and need to do our best to do that.”