Lavington has bumped St Patrick’s out of a finals berth with only three balls left in an exhilarating finish to the regular season.
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Exhausted Panthers’ paceman Nathan Brown dismissed Wodonga century-maker Robbie Jackson in the final over to jump back ahead of the Patties by 0.02 points.
“I remember going to the drinks break, and we were just hoping for a miracle,” Lavington coach Robbie Mackinlay said.
The final minutes of the season couldn’t have been scripted.
At 6.20pm on Saturday, St Pat’s was informed it needed a wicket against North Albury in the final over to win a finals spot.
“Normally with one over to play, you’d just walk off and shake hands and that would be it,” St Pat’s captain Kane Arendarcikas said.
“Jarryd (Hatton) bowled one of the quickest overs we’ve seen at the club.
“One ball went over the keeper’s head and only bounced once before hitting the boundary.
“He cleaned up Ash Borella and we thought we’d done enough at that stage to get into finals.”
And it would have but for Brown’s wicket.
“Brett Davies had bowled the previous over to Leo McGhee and he’d played and missed a few times,” Mackinlay said.
“We’d been trying for 18 overs to get the wicket and we just couldn’t get it.
“’Jacko’ was on 124, Nathan Brown was tired, but he bowled one full and straight, it just cut back a bit and he was lbw.”
We’d been trying for 18 overs to get the wicket ... 'Jacko’ was on 124, Nathan Brown was tired, but he bowled one full and straight, it just cut back a bit and he was lbw.
- Robbie Mackinlay
Lavington supporters celebrated like they’d won the premiership.
“It was exhausting mentally, because you put in a lot of effort during the year,” Mackinlay said.
“There had been a lot of phone calls, so we knew East Albury had beaten New City, and Albury had been beaten by Belvoir.”
The loss ends a 16-year finals run by the Patties, who last missed in 1999-2000.
“And we were in for 10 minutes,” Arendarcikas joked.
The result has saved CAW from further embarrassment.
A number of coaches had been criticial of the draw, which doesn’t allow for teams to play each other once in both one and two-day games, while the allocation of points had also created controversy.
But, in the end, the teams with the most wins made finals.
The counter argument is the bonus points system created the thrilling finish.
Ladder: Wodonga 100.11, North Albury 94.45, Tallangatta 90.95, Belvoir 88.98, East Albury 88.18, Lavington 84.05, St Patrick’s 84.03, Albury 75.62, New City 50.88, Wodonga Raiders 38.60.
Wodonga will play Lavington again, North faces East Albury, while Tallangatta is home to Belvoir.
The two lowest-placed losers are out.
