By Elliott Stevenson
After securing a spot in the women’s T20 Grand Final last weekend, North Hobart is set for an opportunity to take home the trophy for the second time in three years as it takes on Clarence at Ninja Stadium on Sunday.
The Demons comprehensively defeated New Town last Sunday to ensure their place in the top two, with a barnstorming century from Caitlin Mair (113 off 49 balls) the highlight.
Sharing a record of eight wins, three losses, and one no-result, the two sides will be evenly matched going into the encounter.
Demons playing-coach Julia Cavanough says her side’s familiarity with grand finals will be key to winning the day.
“These girls are pretty used to being in these kinds of finals and being in these situations, which is really good,” she said.
“They've got a lot of experience.
“Hopefully we can get the job done on the day.”
The two teams have met thrice so far this season both at Kangaroo Bay Oval and the TCA Ground, with Clarence winning two of the matches.
Cavanough says the previous battles with the Roos will give her side enormous confidence and understanding ahead of the decider.
“It gives us a bit of added confidence knowing that we have both won and lost to them,” she said.
“We've played them at very different strengths, which is probably a good thing because we don't exactly know how they'll line up on Sunday just yet.
“And the team that we’ll have will be pretty consistent.
“We know how they play and what they do, which will be good.”
South African Michaela Kirk will be the one to watch for the opposition, having scored 343 runs this season at an average of 114.33, second best in the competition only to her teammate Tabatha Saville (232 at an average of 116).
The Roos also possess three of the top four wicket-takers in the CTPL so far this season, most notably skipper Sophia Di Venuto (13 wickets at an average of 21.31) who leads the competition.
Despite this, Cavanough insists her side just needs to continue to play their way and not be overawed by the occasion.
“Nothing really changes for us in terms of how we go about our game because we've had a couple of really good wins and different people firing at different times, which has been awesome,” she said.
“Hopefully we can just bring all of our good performances that we've strung together throughout the season so far together on Sunday.
“And hopefully our best is good enough against a pretty good Clarence side.”
The depth of each team will be tested on Sunday with the ongoing WBBL ensuring the competitions elite will remain unavailable, but recent weeks will have prepared both programs for this.
The game begins at 6:30 pm, immediately following the men’s Kookaburra Cup final between the Greater Northern Raiders and Kingborough, also held at Ninja Stadium.
The final will similarly not include any contracted players, but local stars such as Knights gun Zac Curtain and Raiders captain-coach Alistair Taylor will be sure to light up the home of cricket in Tasmania.
Greater Northern handed Kingborough its only white-ball loss of the season so far last month in Launceston, with Cooper Anthes striking a century off 97 balls in a 79-run win for the hosts.
The Knights are aiming to get back to the mountaintop, following a strong campaign last season that failed to result in any silverware, while for the Raiders, a first Kookaburra Cup in their short history beckons.
Greater Northern won the T20 premiership in 2021-22 but has yet to take home a trophy in either of the longer formats, something that would no doubt be a great thrill for cricket in the north of the state.
Kingborough will have a warmup match of sorts on Saturday as it hosts Clarence in its second two-day match of the season.
The Knights lost to Lindisfarne last weekend, falling 29 runs short of their target of 323 and dropping down to fourth on the overall CTPL ladder.
Contrastingly, Clarence soundly defeated reigning premiers University at Kangaroo Bay Oval and will be aiming to defeat the other member of last season's two-day decider across the next two weeks.
The matchup comes after the Roos were unceremoniously knocked out of the Kookaburra Cup finals last Sunday in a thrilling tie against the Knights.
The remainder of the two-day matches beginning this weekend includes a matchup between two sides aiming to pick themselves up from the bottom of the table and put together consecutive wins.
South Hobart-Sandy Bay remains winless on the season despite being competitive in a number of games, while North Hobart has won just the solitary match, a one-day game against Lindisfarne earlier this month.
Tom Willoughby has been the Sharks best so far this season, scoring 288 runs at an average of 72 in all formats, and will be key to putting the first points on the board for Richard Allanby’s side.
New Town and University had distinctly different openings to the two-day season, with the Bucks narrowly missing out an outright victory over North Hobart and the Lions falling to Clarence.
Jayden Vince (101 not out off 52 balls) and big name recruit Josh Hartill (105 not out off 197 balls) made their mark for the Bucks, putting together an unbeaten partnership of 151 to sink the Demons.
The highlights didn’t finish there for Peter Di Venuto’s team, with powerful paceman John Montgomery taking 5/36 off his 14 overs in the near outright victory.
It has been a vastly different story for Uni this season compared to last, with the Lions sitting seventh on the CTPL ladder with a record of two wins and five losses.
Up and coming members of the squad such as Charlie Hill have shown promise, but the mass offseason losses for the reigning premiers has seemingly been too much to overcome.
A win against New Town would surely set the team in red back on the right path this season.