Captain Jeff Rosolin said the Rebels’ two-wicket semi-final win over Bookaar justified their belief.

The Rebels will play powerhouse Mortlake which held off a Dave Murphy-inspired Pomborneit to reach its eighth decider in nine seasons.

“We feel like we have played good enough to be in the top two all year but we learned from last year – you can’t take it for granted because we got rolled in the semi last year,” Rosolin said.

The skipper described the match as bowler-dominated.

Bookaar was restricted to 9-168 as Chris Dendle snared 4-36. Heytesbury scored its winning runs through Sam Newey but the result wasn’t without its nervous moments.

“It was a really tough day batting-wise,” Rosolin said.

“At no stage were the batters able to feel like they were in, so to speak.”

Bulls batsman Murphy scored a century to no avail as the Cats scored a 41-run win.

Mortlake skipper Todd Lamont was full of praise for Murphy.

“He batted brilliantly. Had they got another partnership going we would have been in trouble,” he said.

Lamont said the Cats wrested the momentum in their favour when they had the Bulls five wickets down but Murphy kept fighting.

“He was belting them up the other end and putting pressure on us,” he said.

“We got six, seven, eight and nine in a hurry and it was too much for Murphy to do it on his own, although he was in the frame of mind.”