By Justin Flynn
North Geelong and Grovedale will do battle in the Geelong Cricket Association T20 final.
Nathan Harper led Grovedale to a four-wicket win against East Belmont.
Harper took 3/22 as East Belmont was all for 95 in 20 overs.
Spinner Bailey Sykes proved tough to get away with 1/13 from four overs as was Sam Coutts (2/13 from four).
Michael McNeel then made 51 from 47 balls to have the Tigers chase down the total in the 16th over despite 2/17 from Dale Boyd.
North Geelong was too good for Lara.
Connor Hangan made an unbeaten 65 from 48 balls to be the main reason why the Magpies reached 7/144 from 20 overs.
George Blatherwick picked up 2/24 for the Cats, but his batters couldn’t chase down the required total.
Hangan capped off a stellar game with 3/19 from four overs to have Lara all out for 102 with seven balls remaining. Alistair McCann and Dale Kerr also took two wickets each.
The final is on Tuesday February 27 at Waurn Ponds.
MEANWHILE Geelong’s Provincial Country Week side thrashed Warrnambool & District on Monday.
Chasing 251 for victory, Greg Willows whacked 78 from only 25 deliveries as Geelong reached the target five wickets down in the 30th over.
Sam Hall made 43 and Josh Lacey 42 not out.
On Tuesday, Geelong defeated Leongatha on the Duckworth Lewis System after rain ended play early. Sam Hall made an 88-ball 101 and North Geelong teammate Philip Visser 82 as Geelong posted 8/294 and had Leongatha in trouble at 5/78.
On Wednesday against Ferntree Gully, Dan Blatherwick (4/39) and Sam Coutts (3/40) bowled well with the new ball and were largely responsible for restricting the score to 237. However, Geelong lost regular wickets are was all out for 108.
Geelong played Sale Maffra at Altona yesterday with the final between the top two sides today (Friday February 16).
In Division 2, Bellarine Peninsula sat on the bottom of the 10-team competition yesterday morning and were out of contention for the final.
