It's easy to see why the T20 game has exploded over the past decade.
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Big hitters, fast bowlers and an evening out of the playing field that comes with shortened games.
It's that last part that we're going to focus on right now.
The Bonnor Cup season is set to begin on Friday, October 27 with eight sides involved.
The competing clubs are split into two pools of four, with two teams from each making it through to the semi-finals.
We've given it our best shot at predicting who will win each clash as well as the overall tournament champion.
Let's get to it.
Round one
Pool A - Centrals v St Pat's (October 27) - St Pat's win
Pool A - CYMS v Bathurst City (November 10) - CYMS win
Pool B - Orange City v Rugby Union (November 13) - Orange City win
Pool B - Cavaliers v City Colts (November 17) - Cavaliers win
Some straightforward matches here and a couple not so much.
To open the season we have what may well be the most one-sided match we'll see during the entire competition.
While we're not anticipating this one to be close, what will be important for St Pat's is to come away convincing winners and not just sneak through.
As we saw in last season's edition of the Bonnor Cup, rain can play a big factor when there are so few games and as a result, run rate will be of the utmost importance for a team to grab a number one seed coming out of the pool games.
As for the remaining matches, we're anticipating a clean-sweep from the Orange outfits against their Bathurst counterparts.
The only way we see this changing is if Rugby can live up to the pre-season hype and kick-start their campaign.
Round two
Pool A - Bathurst City v Centrals (November 30) - Bathurst City win
Pool A - CYMS v St Pat's (December 1) - St Pat's win
Pool B - Rugby Union v Cavaliers (December 8) - Cavaliers win
Pool B - City Colts v Orange City (January 12) - City Colts win
A couple of curveballs in this one as we finally see the calendar tick over to 2024.
Speaking of that, the Warriors have been on fire to open the Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket association season, so why have we got them losing to the Colts?
Well, the Bathurst side have been notorious slow starters and tend to pick things up around December. In that same sense, we think it would be unlikely Orange City are able to sustain this level of play for another couple of months.
In the marquee matchups, it's last year's grand finalists who continue their winning ways and seal their place in the semi-finals.
Round three
Pool A - CYMS v Centrals (January 18) - CYMS win
Pool A - Bathurst City v St Pat's (January 19) - St Pat's win
Pool B - Cavaliers v Orange City (January 25) - Cavaliers win
Pool B - Rugby Union v City Colts (February 2) - Rugby Union win
We'll start things off with Pool A by confirming Saints (first) and CYMS (second) are the sides which move on to the knock-out rounds.
Now, let's get to the exciting stuff.
Cavs go through the group stage undefeated and leave the Warriors hopes hanging by a knife's edge.
But in a turn of fortune for the Warriors, Rugby finally get their first win in the competition and cause chaos in the meantime.
With three teams each with one win to their name, who progresses through to take on St Pat's will be decided by run rate.
With the knowledge they would need to either win, or lose close in the final game of the group to make it through the finals, we're banking on City Colts as the team to progress.
Semi-finals
Semi final one - St Pat's v City Colts (February 9) - St Pat's win
Semi-final two - Cavaliers v CYMS (February 16) - Cavaliers win
Looking at these matchups and most would predict it to end in the way of a grand final repeat of 2022...and we're no different.
St Pat's should do away with Colts easily, with both their bowling and batting too strong in the end for the side who just squeaked into the game.
The other matchup will be closer though.
A battle between last year's BOIDC grand finalists, CYMS would be keen to get revenge but in the end, Cavs' big hitting top order proves too much to handle.
Grand final
Cavaliers v St Pat's (February 23)
Both sides get to this game with undefeated title hopes in mind.
Cavs will be looking to go back-to-back, while Saints will look to cause an upset.
Unlike their green and gold counterparts, St Pat's will pull off the victory in this one and be crowned 2023/24 Bonnor Cup champions.
The player of the match to steer the Bathurst outfit home? Connor Slattery.
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Riley Krause
I am a senior journalist for ACM in the Central West. I cover council, human interest, crime and breaking news. Got a tip? Text me at 0448 239 132 or email me at riley.krause@austcommunitymedia.com.au
