Queensland salute in Indoor Champs

Follow: CA Indoor on Twitter

Here's how Cricket Australia's Indoor Manager, Paul Milo, saw Saturday's Grand Final action:

Queensland reign supreme once again by taking out the Open Men and Open Ladies Indoor Cricket Grand Finals titles at the 30th annual Open Championships. 

Played before a very strong crowd in attendance and an audience spanning all parts of the globe through the cricket.com.au live stream, some classic indoor cricket matches were on display.

Queensland Open Men have a habit of winning indoor titles, having taken out 13 of the past 17 titles on offer and they showed their determination in the first half of the match through ultra-consistent batting.

They lost just five wickets (twice to consecutive balls) to post pair scores of 38, 27, 39 and 26 to record a very challenging total of 130. Six players scored between 17 and 21 throughout the 16 overs.

Victoria, playing for the first Open Men title in 20 years in front of a parochial home crowd, almost identically mirrored the Queensland start to also lose two wickets in the first eight overs and scores of 36 and 26 to be three runs behind at the same stage of the match but still 69 shy of their target. 

With the pressure starting to build, the Victorian pair of Clive Rose and Jarrod Burns got away slowly with 1-5 off the first and despite Rose top scoring for the Vics with 20, the team total only saw 18 more added to the total. 

The task became extremely difficult and, chasing too many runs, the Vics threw everything at the last four overs and in doing so lost six wickets thanks to a brilliant over from Spargo and four wickets by Byrne. 

In the end the scoreboard did not reflect the close contest with the home side ending on 95 to fall 35 runs short, with Queensland taking out their 3rd title in a row.

Image Id: ~/media/08DCEFD9B2C940D1B4D0BB6B760C5BEB

In other finals...

Queensland and Victoria played off in the Open Ladies Grand Final. Both teams have shared the past 13 titles after a period of earlier domination from New South Wales. 

Batting first, the favourites in Queensland were extremely solid through the entire batting performance with the first six batters all contributing at least 10 to the total for pair scores of 29, 30 and 29. 

The final pair of Kemp and Maloney then stepped things up a notch with 51 off the last four overs including 2 "7's" to help the visitors chalk up a lofty target of 140.

Looking to build the pressure from the outset, Queensland brought on their skipper Jude Coleman for the first over and made an immediate impact with negative 5, not the start the Victorians were looking for. 

Another 1-0 over in the 9th helped Coleman to Player of the Match honours (for the second year in a row) with Queensland recording a comfortable 140 to 96 win for back to back National titles.

The two Under 20 Grand Finals were without a doubt both epic encounters.

The Under 20 Ladies Grand Final saw Queensland Ladies occasionally threaten to post a very strong total but never quite getting there by posting a reasonable total of 96. 

With NSW on 0 after 4 overs, all looked lost for the NSW team. However, a solid 22 and 24 breathed life in to the game.

Needing 51 for the last four, Leeson and Arnold set about the run chase perfectly with no wickets through the run chase and with scores level and one ball remaining a well placed three off the last ball saw the NSW team pull off a remarkable come from behind victory!

The Under 20 Men Grand Final was somehow even better than the Ladies Under 20 decider!.

To win through to the Grand Final, WA pulled off a last-ball victory by two runs thanks in part to the man of the match performance by Blair Oakley 3 for -7 and 13 vital runs in the last pair. 

In the Grand Final, Blair was once again asked to help snatch victory from defeat against Queensland Maroon. Needing 46 for the last pair, Oakley and Cosson started slowly with only three off the first. Sixteen off the next was followed by 13 off the next to leave the match in the balance with over over left. 

Scores off six of the first seven balls still left an unlikely four needed off the last ball. Oakley somehow managed to avoid being caught and run out twice in the one ball to scamper through twice, adding four to the total to win by one run! An amazing finish - WA the winners.

The Lord's Taverners Shield division has been won by Queensland for 13 of the last 14 years and Victoria was keen to to get their hands on the shield against their experienced rivals. 

Batting first the Queensland innings was book-ended by very well-compiled scores of 19 from Wilson and 21 from Stallan to help set up a healthy score of 75. After four overs for only sven, the locals could have panicked but instead proceeded to score at a rate of knots to take 45 for the second pair and 44 for the third to lead by 21 and allow the final pair to cruise in and ensure The Lord's Taverners Shield stayed in Victoria to the delight of the local crowd.

The entire tournament had great support throughout the week at Werribee Indoor Sports Centre and was watched by 17,000 people throughout all parts of the world via the live stream of the final two days to help demonstrate that Indoor Cricket is alive and well in Australia.