Lavington's pace attack ends St Patrick's season, dismissed for just 60

The Patties had plundered the most runs during the regular season, but were skittled for only 60 from 26.2 overs.

Speculation was rife at Xavier Oval both before and after the game that the pitch had been watered on Friday night.

"No it wasn't, nothing different was done, it was covered as per the rules, everything was as per normal," club president Tony Maher said.

"We just got beaten by a better team."

Lavington coach Daryl Tuffey said he definitely changed his mind on whether to bat first, like most clubs do in finals, after seeing the wicket.

"We were quite surprised it was on the damp and tacky side," he revealed.

"Certainly the wicket did have an impact on the game.

"A Xavier pitch normally has a lot of runs in it, but luckily we won the toss because it was very much a bowler-friendly wicket.

"It was doing a bit of everything to be honest, some were coming through quite nicely and another would stop in the wicket, they had a couple of guys got hit in the shoulder, head from balls off a good length.

"I would have been mightily disappointed if I was on the receiving end if we had lost the toss, got inserted and steamrolled."

The controversy certainly took away from not only Lavington's superb bowling performance, but also the Patties' wonderful season in coming from eighth last year.

St Pat's top four batsmen have been critical to the club's resurgence, so when Matt Crawshaw (duck), Neil Smith (four) and Mitch O'Brien (three) were out at 3-10, the match was effectively over.

"It was probably the best bowling performance of the year, it was just relentless," Tuffey added.

Tuffey opened the bowling and claimed his best figures (3-21 from 9.2 overs) of the season, while the Brown brothers Nathan (2-10) and Ryan (2-13) also chipped in.

In just his fourth provincial game for the year, Pat Plummer top-scored with 22 in the middle order, while captain Dean Nicholson battled hard with 17.

Apart from that duo, no other player made double figures.

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Any slim hopes of St Pat's tearing through the Panthers was halted by former captain Sam Harris's aggressive knock of 32 not out from 35 deliveries with three boundaries and two sixes.

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