In the final, Gruenberg awaits. It's the winners of T20WC 5 versus the winners of the eighth and thirteenth edition. So far, only Apox (5-6) and West Phoenicia (10-11) have managed to appear in back-to-back finals, and now the Dragonflies are in that list as well. Let's look at how both teams got here.
Group A Pld W D L Pts
2 Ko-oren 6 4 0 2 8 Q
Group C Pld W D L Pts
1 Gruenberg 6 4 0 2 8 Q
Gruenberg finished first in a group with 4 wins after starting out with a bye and a loss, but wins over the Grearish Union, Darmen, and West Phoenicia quickly ended rumours that the Gruenbergers were in no shape to get anywhere. Meanwhile, Ko-oren started with a win over Krytenia (that's called foreshadowing) and followed it up with a hit-and-miss series of matches. A loss to the two-win Lisander and Alice Bay team (that's one loss, not two), a win over Vilita and Turori and Quebec and Shingoryeo (that's two wins, not four) and thereby beating some of our biggest rivals across the sporting multiverse, their history in cricket notwithstanding, was a great way to get the general public hyped. Never mind the loss to Bollonich as they otherwise laid waste to the group, ending up with five wins. Until the very end, it looked like Krytenia and Ko-oren were destined for the same record, but their loss to Rundel confirmed it: the head-to-head would be the decider. And there it was: that win over the bastards in cyan rekindled our miracle run.
Ko-oren 186/5 (18.5 overs)
Darmen 183/2 (20 overs)
Ko-oren win by 5 wickets
Gruenberg 138/3 (13.2 overs)
Fodhla 135/6 (20 overs)
Gruenberg win by 7 wickets
In round two, the Dragonflies got to deal with our oldest and fiercest rivals in most sports, but certainly cricket, Darmen. The All Greens set a formidable target, and the Dragonflies cut it close but won with seven balls to spare. The Gruenbergers were back in the hotel early with a win after 13.2 overs and got to enjoy an afternoon off.
The Sarian 148/5 (20 overs)
Ko-oren 152/5 (17.3 overs)
Ko-oren win by 5 wickets
Gruenberg 185/9 (17.2 overs)
West Phoenicia 182/5 (20 overs)
Gruenberg win by 1 wicket
Up next came two great challenges. One were the most recent ODI trophy winners, the other have been all-round cricket behemoths for a while. The finalists took about the same time to beat their opponents, after 17.2 and 17.3 overs in the chase. It has to be said that Gruenberg faced a much higher target - on a friendlier pitch - while Ko-oren had to get to 149 and did so by tying it up first and then finding a gap in the outfield for four.
Ko-oren 145/5 (14.1 overs)
Pratapgadh 141 (17.4 overs)
Ko-oren win by 5 wickets
Baggieland 154/4 (20 overs)
Gruenberg 164/5 (20 overs)
Gruenberg win by 10 runs
And then, the most recent matches. Gruenberg delivered a nail biter against Baggieland - congratulations to them on coming this far - by defending a target of 165. That's squarely in both competing realms of "defendable" and "chasable" - but by taking the Throstles to the very last over, they had earned their spot. The Throstles didn't go down easily with almost all wickets still in hand when it came to the final five overs, but ultimately couldn't force the run rate up enough. The Dragonflies, meanwhile, enjoyed a Pratapgadh collapse from 3/99 at the halfway point to 6/121 four overs later. They were panicking, but not completely lost and made their remaining wickets count for a fairly low total of 142. They did secure a few late boundaries to make it interesting, and on that pitch, anything could happen. And so Lyness and Penn got to work, learning from the mistakes from the first innings. The ground was suited for longer formats as well, and even though the ropes were brought in for easier run scoring in short formats, it certainly wasn't like some of the grounds used in Ko-orenite domestic T20. To play a match of this caliber at a ground of that caliber was still an experience to be treasured by all players, of course. Penn misjudged the length of a Kakadia delivery and went out on LBW. Risewell also didn't last long, forcing a lofted ball into the outfield to the welcoming hands of Gadia. The two early warnings were well heeded by the rest of the team and Lyness paired up with Letchford for a long partnership. 2/65 was as far as they got, and from then on we only saw short partnerships working with whatever skills were at bat. Letchford and Taylor were easily dealt with as two fairly conventional lefties, but Taylor and Hunniford consistenly got each other on strike and the left-right combo offered some surprise at least - it was only the second right-handed batsman of the day after Risewell. Lastly it was Hunniford and yMwffrael to take the target as early as the 15th over, methodically punishing gaps in fielding and weighing their chances on lofted shots. The Pratapsquadh unfortunately couldn't stretch their own innings long enough.
And so Ko-oren is going to the final hoping to limit Gruenberg's run scoring abilities: with the exception of Darmen, the other opponents were all too willing to drop caution and lose wickets in key moments to a creative Green and Blue bowling attack. Gruenberg showed signs of this in the West Phoenicia match - and so between two teams that don't meet all that often but go consistenly far in cricket tournaments, it'll be interesting to see how far video analysis takes you.