AN exciting, high-octane battle between two of the Horsham Cricket Association's finest sides can be expected on Sunday.
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Rup-Minyip and Homers will do battle in the association's first ever A Grade Twenty20 grand final, with the action getting underway at City Oval in the late afternoon.
Rup-Minyip captain Dan Schaper said he was looking forward to the finale of the new format.
"It's been good fun playing the Twenty20's for a few weeks during the round robins - the game is all go, go, go, on your feet all game and chasing balls in the field every second ball," he said.
"It's good fun, and hopefully they can get a really good crowd down there for it on Sunday."
Contrary to prior results, Schaper said batting first could be pivotal.
"Every game we that we played, we seemed to bat second, so we found we were pretty good with chasing," he said.
Runs on the board will be very crucial in mounting a bit of pressure.
- Dan Schaper
"But I think in a final, runs on the board will be very crucial in mounting a bit of pressure."
Rup-Minyip's Mark Mbofana lurks as a game-changer, having averaged 39 with the bat across four Twenty20 matches this season, and finding the boundary on 21 occasions in the process.
The big-hitting Zimbabwean will be once again hoping to launch balls back over the bowlers head and into the City Oval grandstand on Saturday.
Homers' skipper Adam Atwood was weary of Mbofana, but said Rup-Minyip were far from a one-man team.
"With Marco, Dan Schaper, Adam Carter, they've got some guys that can really take the game away from you very quickly," Atwood said.
"They are the keys for us to get out quickly. Then with the ball, they are very even across the board.
"The game can turn really quick with Twenty20s, so it's important for us to be switched on straight away."
The A Grade contest will be preceded by a Twenty20 B Grade grand final between West Wimmera and Lubeck-Murtoa, and a C Grade grand final between Laharum and the West Wimmera Warriors, starting the day at 9:30am.
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