Tara Murray
Caroline Springs has claimed back-to-back Victorian Turf Cricket Association women’s T20 titles.
The top side all season, the Falcons knew they would be in for a test against Westmeadows in the grand final.
The two teams were playing off in a third straight grand final and the Warriors had won the last match up between the two teams.
The Falcons first and got off to a nervous start and were in trouble at 2-9 early.
That brought Caitlin Pretty and My Yen Au to the crease.
The two slowly built a partnership before taking things on late, including 19 runs off the penultimate over, to finish 3-123.
Pretty finished unbeaten on 74 from 53 balls, while Yen Au was run out for 42.
That partnership would prove to be the difference in the match.
The Warriors started slowly also and were quickly in trouble at 3-8 and it would soon be 7-55.
Emily Brebner was able to stick around with opener Danielle Linton and the Warriors were finally able to put on a partnership.
It wouldn’t be enough, with the Warriors falling well short, finishing 7-94.
Kyah Marum took 3-14 from her four overs to be the pick of the bowlers.
Falcons captain Alisha Fowler said the two sides also have really good tussles against each other.
“Whether high scoring runs or low scoring runs it’s a good game,” she said. “We love playing you guys and we love the challenge and that rivalry and we can still come in and have a beer afterwards too,
“To our girls this has probably been 12 months in the making, a couple of new players join us this year which has been great.
“We put in a lot of hard effort, I’m so proud of each and every one of you.”
Gary Pretty came on as coach this season to help the Falcons take their game to the next level.
He was ecstatic to come away with the premiership.
He said there was plenty of motivation after the result the last time the teams played when Westmeadows won a low scoring affair.
“There was a bit of motivation there,” he said. “We identified a couple of key players.”
Pretty said they had said going into the game that they would need 120 on the board if they were a chance of getting the win.
He said both his daughter and Yen Au had been able to stand up after a very early nervous moments after losing to early wickets.
Pretty said Caitlin knew how to stand up in the big moments. She was named best on ground in the grand final for a second straight year.
With the ball, Pretty said the aim was to halt the momentum of the Warriors which they did by taking frequent wickets to put them back under pressure.
Pretty said there was still plenty of work to do going forward as they look to further improve the women’s program.
He didn’t rule out the club trying to get two sides up next season if they could get the numbers.
