Riccarton was a handsome 81-run winner over Marist at Warren Park, while St Albans squeezed out Mid-Canterbury by nine runs in Ashburton yesterday.
St Albans made 157 for eight, which was a good recovery after the side had been in trouble at 30 for four. It could have been 30 for five, but Grant Lucas survived a first ball chance to top score with 53 and share a 69-run stand for the fifth wicket with Guy Bromley.
Schoolboy Andrew Ellis helped finish the innings with a flourish, taking 12 from the 40th over. Dean Harrison, with two for 12, bowled particularly tightly.
After losing two of the three Jemmett brothers in the team, Lyall and Dayle, cheaply, Mid-Canterbury's Steve Moorhead and Jason Overend added 79 for the third wicket to leave the home side well-placed.
However, Murray Griffen delivered an over which produced two wickets, leaving 11 wanted from the final two overs. Garfield Charles threw the stumps down on the last ball of the 39th over to end the innings.
Riccarton had no such tension, posting a healthy 162 for eight with valuable contributions from Blair Miller, cousin Paul Miller, and Wayne Stead returning from injury.
Marist succumbed after a bright beginning, principally to promising left-arm medium-pacer Darren Walker who followed a five-wicket haul in senior club cricket the previous day with four more. Marist was dismissed in the 29th over.
In the women's competition St Albans will also feature in the final against East Christchurch-Shirley.
The women's semi-finals were both default games with South Canterbury defaulting to East-Shirley and Canterbury Country to St Albans, an unsatisfactory way to find the finalists.
Short scoreboards:
Riccarton 162-8 (B Miller 29, W Stead 28, P Miller 26; S McCloy 3-23)
beat Marist 81 (C O'Connell 19; D Walker 4-8, H Shaw 2-16, L Borcoski
2-22) by 81 runs.
St Albans 157-8 (G Lucas 53, G Bromley 27, A Ellis 22no; D Harrison
2-12, C Bell 2-32, C Hastie 2-35) beat Mid-Canterbury 148 (S Moorhead
40, J Overend 35; M Griffen 4-23, M Gower 2-38) by nine runs.