By Tara Murray
Merrifield Panthers will get their first crack at a North West Metropolitan Cricket Association George Luscombe Shield grand final, after beating the Chargers on Saturday.
In their first season in the top flight, the Panthers have been the team to beat with just one loss.
On the weekend they showed why with a good semi final win against the Chargers.
Panthers president and captain Harman Bhathal said everyone was excited to be through to the grand final.
“All three of our senior teams won their semi finals so will play in grand finals,” he said.
“Our under-14s are in a grand final and are on top and our under-16s are leading their grand final as well.
“We have another junior team in a semi final on Monday. This season has been better than what we expected.”
On Saturday in the Luscombe Shield, the Chargers won the toss and decided to bat.
They made 180 before being bowled out in the 68th over. At one stage they were 1-84.
Bhathal said the Chargers just started to lose wickets and they continued to fall.
Satnam Singh took 6-29 for the Panthers.
Bhathal said they thought that total was quite achievable and were able to chase down a similar score in the final round of the season, when the two teams also played each other.
The Panthers lost a couple of early wickets but were able to steady in the middle order through Ramneet Dhaliwal and Talwinder Prince.
Prince stayed in the middle and kept calm despite some wickets falling around him.
The Panthers made the runs in the 65th over, finishing 6-183.
“Prince was able to take the game away from them,” Bhathal said. “We were pretty happy with their effort.”
The Panthers will host the grand final, after minor premiers Darebin Chargers lost to Tarneit Central.
The Panthers had been on top but were docked six points and slipped to second.
Bhathal said it was really exciting to play a grand final at home.
Tarneit though is the only team to beat them this season.
“We’ve got one more game,” he said. “Hopefully we can continue on.”
