A St Patrick's bowling onslaught ripped apart North Albury's air of invincibility in big games in just minutes in Tuesday night's T20 semi-final in Cricket Albury-Wodonga provincial.
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The Hoppers collapsed to 3-4 with representative trio Matt Condon (4), Ash Borella (0) and Ben Fulford (0) falling to Patties' coach Liam Scammell (two wickets) and Isaac Keighran.
North's batting depth, the best in the competition, forced its way back to 5-111, before the visitors lost 4-6 to finish on 9-117.
Zimbabwean international Tendai Chisoro then entertained the strong crowd with a sizzling 59 from 30 deliveries, including five sixes and five boundaries.
He took 27 runs from the sixth over, off Condon, with a straight drive actually lopping a large branch off a big tree, as though it had been attacked by a chainsaw.
"I like scoring quickly and going after the bowlers, especially in the T20s," he suggested.
Chisoro has played 38 internationals over the three formats, including 14 T20s, and has recently re-signed for the Patties for next season.
He was one of four players to take two wickets (2-12) from four miserly overs.
"We know they're going to come pretty hard, that's how they go about it, it was probably going to go one way or the other, fortunately it went our way and all our bowlers did super well," Scammell praised.
The Hoppers have been the masters of escaping from impossible situations, but not even they could overcome that horror start.
"We want to play an aggressive brand of cricket, it's going to happen eventually, unfortunately, it was today (Tuesday)," Condon offered.
And the Patties will meet Tallangatta after it beat Lavington by eight wickets.
The visitors posted a competitive 8-139 as Riverina rep Chris Galvin struck 30 from 28 balls, while Bushies' captain Matt Armstrong claimed 3-21.
The home team's openers ended the match as a contest with a 92-run stand.
IN OTHER NEWS:
John Oswell smashed an unbeaten 72 from 61 balls, including five sixes, while Shoaib Shaikh made 41.
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