Old Boys finished on top of the ladder in both formats but could not finish the job at No 1 Oval on Friday night.

It didn’t start well for Souths with opener Josh Crowe getting a first over duck. 

Troy Osborne (16) and captain Nick Leyden (17) steadied the ship after that, and also got some help from the bowlers with 22 sundries recorded.

They were cruising at 3-70 at the half way mark before OB captain Ben Middlebrook stepped in with two wickets to break some important partnerships.

Josh Smith did the rest, taking the final five wickets straight to finish on 5-26 off eight.

Souths lost the final four wickets for 10 runs, to finish on 100 and give OB a very easy target to chase down.

“They bowled in really good areas and were hard to get away,” Crowe said.

Simon Norvill and Adam Lole strolled to the crease, although Lole was quickly walking back to the shed after Col Smythe trapped him in front in the first over.

In typical fashion Norvill was hitting out, although soon ran out of partners as OB suffered one of their worst collapses of the season.

“Norvill took the attack to us,” Crowe said.

“We had to try and starve him of strike and put pressure on his partners.”

Layne Berry (8) and Matt Hughes (7) were the only other batsmen to top four runs as OB stumbled to be all out for 86 after 27 overs.

Norvill finally fell to Angus McNeill for 53, with OB losing the final nine wickets for 28 runs.

After getting the opener out caught, McNeill went about cleaning up the tail, taking the final three cheaply to finish with 4-29.

“It was a great win and great effort for us to defend that total,” Crowe said.

“We bowled really well from the start and put a lot of pressure on the batsmen.”

It was a different story on Saturday as OB smashed Wests in the final day of a two dayer at Chaffey Park, while Souths were beaten by City United at Riverside 2.

The two finalists will meet again next weekend in the two-day final at No 1 Oval.

“This win gives us so much confidence going into the two-day final,” Crowe said.

“We have got the momentum and the talent to do it and we showed that.

“It’s always a good battle against OB and with both teams at full strength next week it should be a cracker.”

Middlebrook said he thought they bowled and fielded well, and better than they have been.

“We rolled Souths for 100, which was good,” he said.

He said at 1-58 they probably just got a bit too comfortable.

“We played some poor shots. We didn’t value our wickets enough,” he said.

“(But) Full credit to Souths. Once the pressure was on they went full bore at us and got the win.”