U18 State Champs: Fry, Stepien lead respective sides to final

The Breakers defeated the Gippsland Pride off the back of a sensational bowling performance from opener George Fry, who took 7-32 off his 10 overs.

Losing the toss and bowling first, Fry quickly had three of the first four wickets as the Pride stumbled to 4-26 in the early stage of its innings.

An impressive 105-run partnership between Jackson McMahon (52) and Devin Pollock (51) brought the Pride right back into the game, until Fry took over once more.

He took three quick wickets in the space of just four runs, including the important dismissals of the two half-century makers.

The Pride never recovered from its second collapse of the innings, and was all out for 157 off 43.3 overs.

In response, the Breakers were rarely troubled on their way to victory.

Pride opening bowler Jakeb Thomas (2-28) took a couple of early wickets, but an unbeaten partnership of 84 between Damon Egan (65*) and William Taylor (31*) was more than enough to guide the Breakers to the target.

They won the match with six wickets in hand and six overs remaining (4-159).

The Northern Rivers also won their way through to the final after defeating the Northern Falcons.

Rhiley Lau (14) and Brayden Stepien (69) became the top two leading run scorers of the championships as the in-form Rivers batsmen set up an intriguing final with a strong Breakers bowling unit.

Stepien got the Rivers’ innings off to a quick start and will prove to be a pivotal early wicket for the Breakers in the final.

Combining with Layton McCann (51), the opening pair put on 90 for the first wicket.

Small partnerships pushed the Rivers’ score above and beyond 200, with Kyle Mueller (31) and Jack Neylon (20*) making major contributions.

Set a target of 243 to win, the Falcons found themselves in a tough situation at 4-54 following the loss of quarter final hero Jacob Ireland for just two.

The middle order recovered to give the Falcons some hope of a fighting win as Tom Simpson (49) and Blair Dawson (43) put on 66 for the sixth wicket.

Needing 84 runs to win with just four wickets in hand, the tail simply couldn’t keep out the likes of McCann, who followed up his half-century with four wickets.

The Falcons were all out for 219, falling 23 runs short.

Congratulations to all teams involved in the championships, and good luck to the two finalists, the South East Bayside Breakers and the Northern Rivers.