Sunday saw the Hill host another Banks NEPL 1st XI T20 finals day, with Willington, Lanchester and South North making up the usual 4 team format of 2 semis and final on the same day.
The day started well for the Hill, as we beat Willington in the opening game by 7 wickets. The Hill won the toss and pit Willington into bat. After a rapid start, we began to chip away on the wickets column and bowled out Willingon for 153, Pete Jones picking up 4 wickets for 30 in his 4 overs, Mohsin Mukhtar also picking up 2 wickets, there was a wicket each also for Callum, Rory, Anthony and Max. We chased down the total in the 19th over for loss of 3 wickets, Rory Hanley top scoing with 56 not out, Kyle next best with 34.
The scorecard of the Semi FInal is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/4940859
In the second Semi Final, Lanchester looked to be in pole positon to win against South North with 2 overs to go, 6 wickets in hand and 12 to win, however they contrived to finish 2 runs short, to set up a Hill - South North final before the Euro 2020 final kick off.
Unfortunately, we reserved our poorest performance of the season for the final. We won the toss and batted first, but after 10 overs found ourselves at 49 for 6, however Joe Anderson (36 not out) and Max Wiliamson (26) put on 53 for the 7th wicket, to give us a modest total of 122 for 8 in 20 overs, but at least something to try and defend. The early wicket of Chris Hewison got the home fans excited, but a superb innings of 73 not out from Michael Richardson, saw the South North team comfortably home by 7 wickets in the 18th over.
The NEPL T20 final scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/4941313
