The Seagulls were nine wickets down, needing three runs from three overs for victory, when Rovers United all-rounder Matt Brown covered himself in glory.

Brown got a ball to rear sharply off the deck and caused Seagulls’ No.11 Robert Handel to sky a hook shot to Zac O’Brien, who was fielding in close, to seal the win.

The Knights entered the encounter as underdogs, with the powerful Seagulls’ outfit boasting Australian under-19 representative Clive Rose, and were in trouble from the outset before recovering to make the competitive total of 182 from 50 overs.

Openers Jamie Sheehan (2) and Michael Hill (3) were both victims of the juicy wicket but a rearguard action from Brett Mahoney (24) and East Albury young gun James McNeil (63), put the Knights back on track.

Skipper Aaron Boyle was also handy, adding 36, before he was given out lbw.

In reply the Seagulls were in trouble at 4-18 with Boyle reaping 1-18 from his 10 overs and Belvoir’s Josh Mallichan (3-44) also causing major headaches.

Daniel Curtain and Ricky Foulstone resurrected the Seagulls’ innings and they were on track for victory before McNeil dismissed the latter for 44.

But the real turning point in the match was a brilliant run out from Mansfield’s Jamie Sheehan.

Curtain struck the ball to mid-off and took off for a single, but a brilliant sliding pick up and throw to the bowlers end, where Joe Doyle whipped the bails off, put a severe dent in the Seagulls’ prospects.

Knights coach Craig Hogan said he was thrilled with the win.

“They are a good side and we did pretty well to keep them under our total,” he said.

“We were aiming to make 200 after being sent in, so we probably wanted a few more.

“We’ve still got a few areas that we need to work on, we dropped a few catches.”

The Knights play Metro South-East today and face the South-East Country Sharks tomorrow.

- Scorecard — page 32