Berwick wins T20 title

By Jarrod Potter
BERWICK went one better this year in the DDCA Twenty20 competition, capturing the title last Wednesday night when it defeated Coomoora by 44 runs.
Berwick won the toss and batted on a batsman-friendly surface and made good use of the opportunity.
Josh Holden (53), James Davies (41) and Bob Francis (32) struck massive sixes out of the playing arena as Coomoora couldn’t stop the bloodletting.
Kids were chasing balls down the back hill at Arch Brown Reserve after one particularly devastating over from Twenty20 captain Davies, who hit Liam Coates for 6, 6, 4, 6 with the four falling just short of being the fourth six.
With some late order hitting from Jarrod Goodes (24 n.o.), Berwick reached 7/196 from its 20 overs, with 20 fours and seven sixes.
Ash Perera, Coomoora’s marquee player from Casey-South Melbourne, went 0/23 from his four overs with Jason Bacic (3/21) and Luke Wenke (2/18) claimed multiple wickets.
In reply, Coomoora couldn’t get out of second gear. Hard run twos instead were trotted out as easy singles and with the run rate increasing, the striking didn’t ramp up until it was too late. Liam Coates (42) top scored for Coomoora as it reached 4/152, with Berwick sharing around the wickets.
Berwick Twenty20 captain James Davies was happy with his innings, which was set up by the good batting from Josh Holden and Bob Francis.
“It was a good time to try and put on a few extra runs – we had plenty of wickets in hand,” Davies said.
“We wanted to increase the run rate and put the pressure back on them. It was good to make the runs in a grand final, but there were a couple of lads, Josh Holden and Bob Francis, who set the innings up for the guys down the order.”
The bowlers executed their set up to ensure the Coomoora sloggers couldn’t target the short boundary.
“We bowled well,” Davies said. “Everyone who bowled stuck to the plan. There’s a short boundary on one side and we knew we had to protect it. It was quite a good wicket so to keep them to 150 was good. We won the first competition and we were in the granny (grand final) last year, so it was good to go one better.”