The Dogs will now face North Albury in Tuesday's final after posting 7/202 in a classic encounter against Albury.

On an evening when 397 runs were scored, 15 wickets fell and 20 sixes were smashed, the visitors won by just seven runs with Albury battling to 8/195.

Wodonga coach Paul Wilson described Johnson's ton, which came off just 58 balls, as one of the best innings he'd ever seen.

"What he did was he clean hit the ball," Wilson said.

"We always talk about playing good cricket shots early in your innings when the field's up, the ball's hard and the bowlers are new and he just did.

"It was a very sensible knock. I've played a lot of cricket and that's one of the best knocks I've seen."

Johnson was straight into his work, with fellow opener Will Ashton more circumspect at the other end for a while before he, too, began to accelerate.

The pair ran hard between the wickets and some of Johnson's hitting was exemplary, with one pull shot travelling so far it landed on a neighbour's driveway on the far side of Macauley Street.

Wodonga's captain was cheered from the field when he finally departed, bowled by Ross Dixon, with the Albury players quick to acknowledge an innings of the highest class.

"I took the approach of just having a bit of fun," Johnson said.

"It was the Jack Gilbee approach; don't think about cricket, just swing the willow. It worked out well and I loved it.

"That's definitely my first hundred in a T20 and probably my last so it's definitely in my highlights package.

"We know Billson isn't a big oval so any sort of width, we decided to just go at it.

"We got balls in our hitting zone and rolled with it.

"Once we started to get a bit of momentum, it was hard to stop and we just kept going."

Johnson and Ashton, who crafted a superb 42, shared a partnership of 152 before Albury started to pick up wickets.

Dixon emerged with 5-22 but there was carnage all over the scorecard, with BJ Garvey racing to 30 off 11 balls and Cameron Suidgeest hitting 12 off seven late in the piece.

However, the response from Albury was fantastic and for a long time, the most unlikely of run chases looked to be on the cards.

Alex Popko led the charge with 44 off 22 balls and one of his four sixes sent Leigh Collins scrambling up on top of the nets to retrieve the ball.

But when Popko and John Spencer (30) holed out in consecutive overs, the momentum swung back Wodonga's way momentarily.

Daniel Welsh had other ideas, scoring 30 off 17 balls, and there were entertaining cameos from Corey McAlpin (27 off 16) and Todd Henderson (23 off 18) before the latter was run out in the final over.

"It was an absolute ripper," Johnson said. "If you wanted a game of cricket to come and watch, that was it.

"It was a hell of a game and I'm happy we got the result.

"Credit to Albury because they gave it to us, that's for sure."

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Cricket Albury-Wodonga chairman Michael Erdeljac wore the biggest smile in the ground after a wonderful advert for the competition.

"That's one of the better games of T20 you're going to see anywhere, chasing 200-plus and taking it to the last over," Erdeljac said.

"We tried something different and it's worked. We've had 400 people here at a game of cricket on a Tuesday and I'm looking forward to next Tuesday night when we have the two grand finals side by side at Martin Park and Les Cheesley Oval.

"We had seven different clubs involved in the semi-finals tonight and to get where we are now, it's just fantastic.

"We've seen a hundred, two of the biggest sixes, a five-fer, one of the best catches in the outfield you're ever going to see and we nearly saw a hat-trick (for Leo McGhee)."

The other semi-final was a low-scoring game by contrast, with North Albury restricting Corowa to 8/93 and winning by four wickets.

Matthew Grantham top-scored with 34 for Corowa, with Haydyn Roberts and Cal Langlands chipping in with two wickets apiece before the Hoppers chased down the runs with nine balls to spare.

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