Southern Districts’ Womens first grade side has joined their second grade teammates in reaching the SACA Premier Cricket Twenty20 Grand Final after a hard fought 10-run win over Sturt on Sunday. The second grade had already booked their spot in the decider after winning their first five matches. The Grand Finals will be played on Saturday November 30 from 10.30am with the first grade to take on Kensington at the magnificent Karen Rolton Oval with the second grade playing next door at Park 25 (Oval 2) against either Glenelg or Northern Districts.

On Sunday the Stingrays first grade took to the field at Bice Oval with a simple equation, beat Sturt and appear in the Grand Final on 30 November at Karen Rolton Oval. The home side batted first and got off to a good start as Kelly Armstrong (19)  and Narelle Maiolo (7) combined for an opening stand of 32 from seven overs. Once the openers were dismissed and skipper Jess O’Reilly went for 10, the Stingrays were in a spot of bother at 3/47. Enter Kylie Rattray (21 off 17) and Ella Wilson (27 off 24) to give the innings some much needed impetus as these two added a quickfire 43 from just six overs for the fourth wicket before the innings finished with the home side posting a very defendable 9/118 from their 20 overs. Wilson and Rattray sit in the top five leading run scorers for the competition this season and both have strike rates in excess of 100. Stacey Oates (2/26) and Rhianna Peate (2/28) were the multiple wicket takers for Sturt. The Sturt run chase started with Stingrays skipper Jess O’Reilly bowling a maiden before Hannah Sampson took a wicket with her first ball and also removed SA and Strikers squad member Annie O’Neil (16) on her way to the miserly figures of 2/7 (4). Kelly Armstrong continued her excellent season as she took 3/10 from her four over spell. Armstrong leads the competition with 15 wickets for the season. Sturt failed to gain any momentum as they slipped to 6/59 in the 13th over before a late surge saw them get the score up to 6/108 after 20 overs, mainly due to a hard hitting 36 not out (22 balls) from Oates at the end.

Next Sunday the first grade have a bye while the second grade will play Adelaide University at Park 12 (No. 1) from 1.00pm. The longer format games start on Sunday 24 November with the first grade competition being 50 overs per side while the second grade, who are the reigning premiers, play 40 overs per side.