The Mount Isa T20 cricket season has come down to the wire as Black Stars and Cavaliers face off for the remaining place in the final this Saturday.
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Both Black Stars and Cavaliers are on equal points in second and third and they play each other this weekend in an effective semi-final play-off.
The first placed Bulls have already qualified for the final and rock bottom Panthers are without a win all season.
In the second last round the Bulls sent a clear message to the rest of the competition when they skittled the Cavaliers for just 68 after winning the toss and sending them in.
Things were running smoothly with a 32 run opening partnership thanks to Cody Tully (24) and Sam Peters (6) but the Cavs then lost a remarkable ten wickets for just another 36 runs to be all out in the 13th over.
Bulls captain Callum Jones said his side had improved as the weeks continued.
"We didn't drop as many catches as previous weeks and Khan bowled really well taking 5-27," Jones said.
Jones said his side didn't stumble when chasing the Cavaliers' modest total.
"Our batsman went out made light work of the total reaching it in the 11th over three wickets down."
Old habits seemed to die hard in the second game with the Panthers going down by 32 runs against the Black Stars.
Black Stars batted first and managed 171 thanks mostly to Alex Batman standing tall on 62 not out.
Hoping to record their first win of the season, the Panthers went hard from ball one but still fell short.
Panthers captain Ben Ryan said his side had not fixed its issues yet.
"We didn't improve from the last few weeks, the same problems lost us the game. Our bowling in the second ten overs of their innings was very average, they put on 110 runs," Ryan said.
"Then with our batting we had a slow run rate which let us down again."
Ryan said he will use the final game to try a few things out.
"We're going to shake things up next week, with the addition of Joe Coughlan to inject some pace, and a change up of the batting order."
Round 6 has the Black Stars vs Cavaliers at 10am.
Panthers vs Bulls at 2pm.
The grand final will be on the following Saturday, November 16.
Mount Isa Cricket T20 table 2019/20
Bulls - 4 W - 1 L
Black Stars - 3 W - 2 L
Cavaliers - 3 W - 2 L
Panthers - 0 W - 5 L
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