Border Bullets too good for Wagga Sloggers in Regional Bash

Border Bullets booked their place in the statewide finals at the Sydney Cricket Ground with a 28-run victory over Wagga Sloggers at Bilson Park in Albury.

Former Test cricketer Andrew McDonald led the Bullets to 6-192 from their 20 overs, a total that proved too much for the visitors.

Wagga fielded one of their strongest representative teams in years but never really looked like chasing it down and finished at 8-164.

Sloggers captain Joel Robinson said Wagga was beaten by a better team on the day.

“They got us in small patches basically,” Robinson said.

“They came out and were about 0-50 after four overs and we were 0-20.

“That was probably the difference in the end.

“They took some good catches in the outfield where as we dropped a couple.

“We were right in the hunt until the end but didn’t quite get there.”

Bullets captain Trent Ball won the toss, batted and took it upon himself to set the tone.

He scored a quickfire 31 at the top of the order, before McDonald took over and top scored with 42.

Robinson said McDonald was good, but refused to blame his one-off appearance as the reason for the result.

“There was obviously a bit of pressure on him and he built into his innings,” Robinson said.

“He was definitely a good player in the game but he wasn’t the difference.”

David Bolton was the pick of the bowlers for Wagga with 3-38 from his four overs.

Kurt Robertson was the star with the bat, making 63, which included a couple of big sixes.

Aaron Maxwell was good in support with 32.

“All in all, we did well to get where we did,” Robinson said.

“When you’re chasing big scores like that, generally a lot of teams get bowled out for 70 or 80. We were able to continue on despite losing a few wickets at a time in patches which was pretty pleasing.”

Wagga’s next representative assignment will be their O’Farrell Cup defence.