Dovey destruction sinks rivals in Country Cup qualifiers

Powerful batsman Nathan Dovey blasted an incredible 44-ball century to guide Albany Cricket Association into the Toyota Country Cup finals, his blistering innings helping sink Upper Great Southern Cricket Association for a second time on Saturday at Tigerland.

Playing Upper Great Southern in the best of three Twenty20 qualifying matches, Albany needed their top order to fire with the bat and Dovey did just that.

After a convincing win in game one, Dovey again opened for the Whalers in game two and he needed little time settling in as the ball began to disappear to all parts of the ground.

He reached 33 without hitting a maximum before opening up a ruthless attack on the Upper Great Southern bowlers.

Ex-Albany player Julian Crudeli had Dovey dropped at one stage before he copped the start of the brutality, getting hit for consecutive sixes over the leg side. Dovey brought up his half-century with a six but the best was yet to come as Upper Great Southern captain Kalan Joyce brought himself onto bowl.

Dovey took a liking to Joyce’s deliveries and hitting with the wind he crunched four consecutive sixes followed by a boundary and a single, taking 29 runs from his over and losing a couple of balls in the bush behind the ground in the process.

Dovey raced to 85 and he added three more singles before belting Bevan George way over the leg side in two consecutive balls to bring up his ton after facing only 44 deliveries.

The 32-year-old hit eight boundaries and nine sixes in his superb 105 and was eventually caught in the deep trying to hit Conan Holder over the rope in the 15th over.

It was his second century in a T20 match and post-game Dovey said he was just lucky his shots came off.

“It was just one of those days everything went right,” he said.

“A few came out of the middle and a few loose balls.

“Occasionally you will get in like that and get the perfect set of circumstances.

“It was our second game in a row on the same pitch against the same team and I was basically in from the first game, my confidence was up and I was ready to hit from probably the second over.”

His blazing century came on the back of 60 as Albany went on to win the series 2-0.