City United's protracted search for more silverware will continue after their one-day final loss to Old Boys, but a reverse of that result in a Twenty20 the following day was "incredibly important", City skipper Pete Mead has said.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Old Boys claimed back-to-back one-day crowns with a 105-run win at No 1 Oval on Friday night, in a match that Old Boys skipper Ben Middlebrook described as "fiery".
Read more:
City got a measure of revenge at Riverside 2 on Saturday, when they beat Old Boys by four wickets in an opening round Twenty20.
Mead said his side was "disappointed on many, many levels" after their batting capitulation in the final (they were dismissed for 64 in the 17th over chasing 169).
"Taking nothing away from Old Boys: they played very, very good cricket," he said, adding that in the T20 "we focused on the task at hand - and we backed up pretty well, considering we were obviously feeling pretty low".
"That's incredibly important," he also said. "And it shows that we've got that spirit amongst ourselves.
"There's a box ticked there. When things do get tough, we know we're gonna help each other - and we did that on Saturday.
"We could have laid down and rolled over a bit - but that was far from it. We just tried to think, How can we improve?"
Put into bat, Old Boys were dismissed for 97 in 20 overs.
City then made 6-100 in 16.5 overs - with Callum Henry (43 not out) and Brad Smith (31) top-scoring.
City's Andrew Baines and Old Boy's Simon Norvill took 3-21 and 2-16 off four over, respectively.
Aaron Hazlewood top-scored for Old Boys with 18.
In response to Middlebrook saying City engaged in too much "turkey talk" in the one-day final, Mead declined to comment.
Middlebrook added: "They decided to play cricket on Saturday instead of carrying on with the turkey talk. They've proven that they're good cricketers: they just need to focus on that."
In other Twenty20s on Saturday, South Tamworth had a 91-run win over West Tamworth at No 1 Oval, while North Tamworth downed Bective East by eight wickets at Riverside 1.
Souths made 7-151 and then removed Wests for 60 in the 13th over.
Tom Groth top-scored for Souths with a 32-ball 44, while veteran Wests paceman Stu Irwin continued his good form with 3-21 off four overs.
The Bulls made 7-108, with the Redbacks passing the total in the 19th over.
