Lake Albert remain in the hunt for their second premiership in three years after a four-wicket win over Wagga RSL in the preliminary final on Sunday.
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Captain Alex Smeeth led the way for the Bulls to set up a rematch against South Wagga.
The Englishman scored an unbeaten 119 to guide his team to victory.
Needing 236 for victory, Smeeth secured the winning runs in fine style, smashing two boundaries to end the chase in the 66th over.
Given a life line on 35, Smeeth made the most of his second chance.
His 79-run partnership with Kurt Robertson (42) proved crucial.
“You need partnerships when you are chasing any score and we have lost wickets in clumps in the last two or three weeks but we didn’t do that today,” Smeeth said.
“Me and Kurt as captain and vice-captain try to stand up as the two most experienced batsmen and it was nice to get the boys close today.”
Batting hasn’t been the strength for Lake Albert this season but Smeeth was thrilled his team could deliver with their season on the line.
Now he wants to back it up against the Blues in the decider.
“We’ve proven that we can get 200 plus, chase down scores and back it up with the ball,” he said.
“We just have to do it again next week.”
A brilliant 117-run ninth-wicket stand between Tim Cameron (77) and John Hoey (52 not out) was a massive boost for RSL.
After being 3-13, Josh Staines (48) kick started the revival before the tailenders took the Bulldogs into a winnable position.
Coming together at 8-110 they not only saw out Saturday but help their team make another 27 in six overs on day two before the innings was declared at 9-235.
However RSL couldn’t make the most of having the Bulls at 2-17 and then 4-75 as Smeeth proved to be a big thorn in their side.
Now he’s looking for a better batting and fielding performance to add to South Wagga’s recent woes in grand finals and reverse the two losses in the last three weeks.
“We just have to bat better, we haven’t bowled badly we’ve batted poorly and we’ve caught fairly poorly as well,” Smeeth said.
“We dropped three or four catches again this week and we can’t do that next week with the quality of their batting.”