![East Albury captain Miles Hemann-Petersen rides the bounce against St Patrick's on Saturday. Picture by Mark Jesser East Albury captain Miles Hemann-Petersen rides the bounce against St Patrick's on Saturday. Picture by Mark Jesser](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/andrew.moir/b0338e3d-0186-46a3-9340-825af14daddd.jpg/r0_0_2432_1621_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
St Patrick's ended a worrying three-match losing streak with a thrilling win from the third-last ball against East Albury on Saturday.
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In a rain-shortened match, cool captain Dean Nicholson hit a boundary for the four-wicket win.
"When we lost the toss we didn't really mind because if we had batted first we didn't know what a good score would have been in a 36-over match," Patties' coach Liam Scammell revealed.
Their fellow finals contender registered 6-170 with captain Miles Hemann-Petersen compiling a superb 80 from 94 deliveries, with seven boundaries and a six.
Unfortunately, in-form Crows' opener Matt Tom was forced to retire hurt on 22 after injuring his hamstring while running between the wickets.
Patties' teenage opener Ed Kreutzberger again showed his maturity with 57 from 78 balls, while Nick Brown continued his strong run with 48.
At 6-143, the visitors were still in the game, but a typical hard-hitting effort from Luke Evans seized the momentum.
"We needed around 26 runs off 15 balls, but Luke hit a couple of sixes which took us down to around 14 off two overs, so that was pretty important," Scammell offered.
Evans finished on 27 not out.
The match also featured one of the best catches of the opening nine rounds.
The Patties' Neil Smith was midair and horizontal to the ground, diving to his right, when he plucked Caleb Hobbs at mid-wicket.
"He's been working on his fitness and it's fair to say 12 months ago he wouldn't have taken that catch," Scammell praised.
Meanwhile, Oliver Hald created a piece of history by claiming a triple hat-trick - five wickets in five balls - in the 105-hiding of Lavington.
Hald claimed 7-12 as the visitors capitulated for only 30 from 15.1 overs.
Fellow opening bowler Corey McCarthy snared 3-18.
Earlier, Danish international Hald had top-scored with 22 from only 17 balls, with a boundary and two sixes, in the total of 120.
"The wicket was a little sticky (after the morning rain) but he put some momentum in the innings, he got 16 in one over and put us past that 100 mark," Albury coach Ross Dixon explained.
Nizam Uddin, Shayan Shayan and Ryan Brown all captured three wickets apiece.