The last week of WDCA cricket is understandably the biggest on the entire calendar, with premiers set to be decided across senior and junior grades.<\/p>\n
The A reserve decider will be a close one, with Yarrawonga Mulwala set to take on Delatite at Baarmutha Park, Beechworth, from 1pm on Saturday.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve been the two best teams all year, finishing one and two in the regular season and winning their home semi-finals to secure a ticket to the big dance.<\/p>\n
Delatite secured a one wicket win with three balls in hand in their semi-final, proving they can grind out a tough result.<\/p>\n
Mark O\u2019Loughlan will be a key player with bat in hand, having racked up 572 runs averaging north of 40 through the season, while Nathan Goodes (296 @ 24.67) and Mitchell Purcell (24 wickets @ 11) will also be ones to watch.<\/p>\n
With no A grade squad, Delatite\u2019s A reserve side is made of the best cricketers in the club, while Yarrawonga will field their second-string side by virtue of also qualifying for the A grade grand final, but it\u2019s still an incredible team.<\/p>\n
Oliver Connell (17 wickets @ 14), Xavier Mitchell (13 @ 14.08) and Zach Moore (252 runs @ 63) will be doing their best to drag their side over the line.<\/p>\n
In B grade, it\u2019s a David vs Goliath battle when one-team club Merton take on giants Rovers United Bruck at Bill O\u2019Callaghan Oval.<\/p>\n
Merton only dropped three games for the season, finishing on top of the ladder thanks to a well-balanced batting line-up and wily bowlers.<\/p>\n
They have four batters who have made more than 200 runs, showing a well-rounded run-scoring core, while young leggie Henry Berriman leads the league in the bowling, with 34 poles to his name at an average of 8.79.<\/p>\n
On the other side of the ledger are the Rovers, who boast some massive run-scoring capabilities through veterans Jeremy Ackroyd and Andrew Balfour, bolstered by a crop of talented youngsters.<\/p>\n
The B grade decider commences from 1.30pm at Barr Reserve\u2019s Bill O\u2019Callaghan Oval.<\/p>\n
In C grade, it\u2019s a showdown between Yarrawonga Mulwala and Beechworth at North Wangaratta.<\/p>\n
The experienced campaigners from both clubs will be out in force.<\/p>\n
Gary Browning (32 wickets @ 6.97) will be the spearhead for the Lakers, but Beechworth has the courage and skill to match with the bat, making the final after finishing fourth.<\/p>\n
The match begins from 1.30pm at WJ Findlay Oval.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also grand final weekend in the junior grades.<\/p>\n
After their divisional finals over the past few weeks, the under 12 Gold and Blue winners will meet to determine who is the ultimate champions of the youngest age group. <\/p>\n
Ovens Valley United Orange and Benalla Bushrangers Red meet at North Wangaratta from 9am on Saturday, with the winners to raise the Bill Daniel Shield.<\/p>\n
The Tigers will also have a presence in the other junior grand finals, with the under 14s up against Greta for the Len Hill Shield, and the combined Beechworth-Ovens Valley United squad set to play City Colts in the under 16s for the Eugene Kneebone Shield.<\/p>\n
Congratulations to all teams involved in grand finals, and good luck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last week of WDCA cricket is understandably the biggest on the entire calendar, with premiers set to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-549905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}