MORE CRICKET - Brayden Stepien tastes defeat in debut game for Renegades

STRATHDALE-Maristians has completed its state title goal, winning Cricket Victoria's Regional Big Bash final at the Junction Oval on Sunday.

The Suns defeated Mornington Peninsula T20 powerhouse Langwarrin by five wickets with 11 balls to spare, becoming the first BDCA team to win the Regional Big Bash.

"I'm super proud of the team... all the way through the tournament we showed up Sunday after Sunday, which is hard to do, and gave it a red-hot crack every game," Suns captain Cameron Taylor said.

"It's a really proud moment for the club to not only be in a game like today, but to then win it is really special."

Chasing Langwarrin's 7-131 after it was sent in by Strathdale-Maristians, the Suns answered with 5-135 to cap off a mission that began just over 12 months ago when they won the BDCA's 2018-19 T20 title.

The Suns won six knockout games throughout the tournament to get through to the grand final before being the last team left standing.

Just as he did last week in the Suns' back-from-the-dead win over Haig-Fawkner to qualify for the grand final, Strathdale's Linton Jacobs (5 n.o.) again hit the winning runs with a boundary off the first ball of the 19^th over.

The cornerstone partnership of the Suns' successful chase was a 64-run stand for the fourth wicket between Taylor and Grant Waldron.

When Waldron joined Taylor at the crease in the fifth over the Suns were 3-31 following the dismissals of Sam Johnston (4), James Vlaeminck (11) and Jack Neylon (14).

The two experienced batsmen both played with cool heads, ticking the run-rate over without too many risks against a spin-dominated Langwarrin bowling attack.

By the 10-over mark the Suns were 3-74 and requiring 58 off the last 10 overs to win.

Waldron and Taylor added a further 21 before Waldron tried to loft a full toss from Matthew Prosser (1-25) over the fence, but was caught at long-on by Jake Prosser, leaving the Suns 4-95 in the 14^th over.

Two overs later after launching a big six off another Matthew Prosser full-toss, Daniel Clohesy (8) was run out the following ball, bringing Jacobs to the crease to join Taylor with 16 required off 24 to win.

However, the Suns only needed 13 of those deliveries to get over the line and add another accolade to their already impressive list of BDCA accomplishments over the past decade.

As well as captaining the winning side, Taylor also earned man-of-the-match honours to cap a memorable weekend after he also made a career-high 178 against White Hills on Saturday.

Taylor finished unbeaten on 56 off 45 balls, hitting eight boundaries, including three in a row off Malcolm Coutts (0-34) during the 18^th over that levelled the scores.

Earlier, the Suns looked like they could be in for a testing 20 overs in the field after Langwarrin made the most of its invitation to bat first.

Openers Tom Hussey and Jake Prosser got Langwarrin off to a flyer as they took 29 off the first three overs.

However, when off-spinner Vlaeminck claimed the first wicket when he caught and bowled Prosser (18) in the fourth over the Suns were able to peg Langwarrin back and keep the pressure on for the remainder of the innings.

Vlaeminck also caught and bowled Hussey (21) and the following ball had Travis Canavan (0) caught by keeper Jacobs, at which stage Langwarrin was 3-47 in the eighth over.

Vlaeminck missed out on a hat-trick, but did finish with the game's best bowling figures of 3-18 off four overs.

After his first two overs with the new ball went for 22 runs, paceman Chris Sole came back later in the innings and picked up two wickets to claim figures of 2-34 off four overs.

Ryan Haythorpe (1-13), who beat the bat several times, also picked up a wicket, while Taylor (0-17) ran out Langwarrin captain Travis Campbell (25) with a piece of fielding off his own bowling.

Adding to the feat of winning the Regional Big Bash title was the Suns doing it against a Langwarrin side that had lost just once in its previous 35 Twenty20 matches.

"They are obviously a very strong team and we certainly knew we'd have a big challenge, but we stuck to our plans with bat and ball and I thought we executed really well," Taylor said.

.........................................

Scoring comparison:

1st: Lw 0-14 SM 0-6

2nd: Lw 0-21 SM 1-10

3rd: Lw 0-29 SM 1-25

4th: Lw 1-34 SM 1-30

5th: Lw 1-35 SM 3-31

6th: Lw 1-39 SM 3-37

7th: Lw 1-45 SM 3-46

8th: Lw 3-47 SM 3-57

9th: Lw 3-54 SM 3-64

10th: Lw 3-63 SM 3-74

11th: Lw 3-72 SM 3-80

12th: Lw 3-79 SM 3-83

13th: Lw 3-86 SM 3-93

14th: Lw 4-87 SM 4-96

15th: Lw 5-91 SM 4-107

16th: Lw 5-100 SM 5-116

17th: Lw 6-103 SM 5-118

18th: Lw 6-110 SM 5-131

19th: Lw 7-121 SM 5-135

20th: Lw 7-131

The winning team - Cameron Taylor (c), Daniel Clohesy, Ben DeAraugo, Jacob DeAraugo, Ryan Haythorpe, Linton Jacobs, Sam Johnston, Jack Neylon, Chris Sole, James Vlaeminck, Grant Waldron, Adrian Pappin (12th).

Have you signed up to the Bendigo Advertiser's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in central Victoria.