King’s College have won the inaugural Premier T20 Championship after a tense three-wicket win over Mt Albert Grammar on Saturday.
Having won the toss, King’s gave their bowlers first use of a familiar home wicket. Louis Anderson and Muhammad Abbas repaid the faith by bagging a pair of Mt Albert wickets inside the first four overs.
King’s bowlers kept attacking the stumps and made it difficult for the visitors to lift their run-rate. Mt Albert duo Umang Patel (39) and Adithya Ashok (39*) fought through the tight lines to push the total to 108/5 from their 20 overs.
For King’s, Paddy Maher picked up 2-25, including a one-handed caught and bowled hit firmly to his right.
To start Mt Albert’s defence, opening bowlers Patel and Flynn O’Loughlin (2-13) put a fire under King’s during the powerplay. When Nick Tapper joined Nathan Robinson at 17/3, in the sixth over, Mt Albert was well and truly on top.
The King’s pair then turned the match in their favour with an 85-run fourth-wicket stand. Robinson (58*) was the aggressor of the two, hitting 4 fours and 3 sixes, while Tapper provided the perfect foil with a run-a-ball 28.
While the match-changing stand took King’s to the edge of victory, there was still some late drama with Yahya Zeb taking two wickets in two balls.
A run-out followed with the scores tied before Robinson hit the winning run to claim a three-wicket win with nine balls to spare.