The Western Zone can now be regarded as the premier region for cricket outside of Sydney following the Orana Outlaws’ win in Sunday night’s Plan B Regional Bash final at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
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The win in the NSW Country Cricket’s premier Twenty20 cricket competition followed on from Western Zone’s win in the Country Championships last season.
“We’ve been a good side for about five years now so to come out and win the double, as we’re calling it, it does cement us as the premier zone in country cricket at the moment,” Orana coach Jason Ryan said.
Ryan, who’s been around Western Zone squads for roughly 15 years now, described the win over Northern Rivers Rock as “massive”.
Orana was defeated at the semi-final stage last season, but after scoring a clinical win over the Wagga Wagga Sloggers on Sunday morning the Outlaws stepped out again under lights and defeated the Rock by 13 runs in a thrilling decider.
“To come back and do what we did is huge and it’s a massive year for Western Zone as a whole,” he said.
“After winning the Country Championships as well this is a huge pat on the back for all everyone has done.”
The win in the decider was far from certain right down to the final overs, with Ryan stating the game as a whole was “the most nervous three hours I’ve had in my life”.
After winning the toss and batting, the Outlaws were faced with a professional Northern Rivers bowling unit which gave few runs away early.
Jordan Moran and Nathan Pilon, who starred in the semi-final win, steadied things with 26 and 28 respectively but the Outlaws only passed 100 in the 15th over.
But that was where the game changed. Mitch Bower and Mat Skinner, after working the ball around early, exploded into life. Skinner hit three consecutive sixes in one over while 34 was taken off the maxi over.
Bower punished the attack in the final overs, smashing three sixes and one four of his own as he made a momentum-swinging 51 from 20 balls.
“It was awesome,” Ryan said of the final overs.
“Mat got into them and then we did it again in the maxi over and we ended up adding 30 or 40 more runs than we thought we would. That was the turning point.”
The Rock got off to a flying start but Greg Buckley (3/29 from four) and Wes Giddings (2/23 off four) tied things up through the middle and Nathan Pilon’s exemplary captaincy helped the Outlaws see it through.
“With the experience he’s had over the past 20 years, everyone has learnt so much from him,” Ryan said of Pilon. “He’s a very smart cricketer.”
The Twenty20 success for Orana follows on from Western Zone winning the Cricket NSW Country Championship last month.
