Twenty20 nailbiter

The Bunbury and Districts Cricket Association won the right to contest the Country Cup finals in Perth next March after easing through preliminary rounds on Sunday.

Starting the round-robin competition at Forrest Park as hot favourites, Bunbury’s campaign hit a speed bump in the form of nemesis Busselton-Margaret River in their first match, but they recovered from that defeat to scrape through by the narrowest of margins on a quotient calculation.

After frenetic Twenty20 action at Forrest Park the issue ended in a tie with Bunbury, Albany and Busselton sharing four points each with two wins.

A fitting finale was the nailbiting contest between Albany and Busselton as Albany scrambled a bye off the last delivery to reach the modest target of 103 runs set by Busselton.

Bunbury started the day poorly against Busselton before Tom Buchanan and Kobus Wessels put up 48-run stand for the fourth wicket, but after Mike Provis split the pair and Danny Hatton did damage in the lower order, Busselton were set just 107 runs for victory which Devon Coote, Martin Head and Mike Provis put to bed for the loss of six wickets.

At Forrest Park East, Albany were riding roughshod over Donnybrook to set up a clash with Bunbury and were blitzed by a Clint Hewson hurricane.

Mat Anderson, Clayton Caltsounis and skipper Foreman all took two wickets to bundle Albany out for 87.

Hewson and Jacob Evans gave the BDCA a 65-run opening start with Hewson smashing three successive sixes in half an hour of mayhem to post 53 not out off just 31 deliveries.

Back to the North Oval and a shock for Bunbury as the unheralded Donnybrook-Blackwood attack ripped apart the top order with Shaun Gardiner starting a slide with the wicket of Hewson in his first over followed by three in quick succession to Tristan Mead to have the favourites 4-24.

Wessels, Hillery, Hutchison and skipper Foreman all put up starts to see Bunbury home by three wickets to await the outcome of the Busselton-Albany clash.