By Tara Murray
Bundoora won a final round thriller to ensure its spot in the Diamond Valley Cricket Association Barclay Shield finals.
The Bulls entered the final round in fourth spot, with Macleod hot on their heels.
A win would be enough for the Bulls to play finals, while a loss would mean they would have to rely on other results.
The Bulls won a thriller with Rosanna on Saturday to ensure that it didn’t have to worry about anyone else. Macleod ended up losing on the final ball to Riverside.
Bulls president Stuart Adams said he believed it had been about 12 years since they had played finals in the Barclay Shield.
He said a lot of people had done hard work to get them back to this level.
“It’s exciting,” he said. “From a Bundoora point of view, for almost 100 years we’ve been playing in the Barclay Shield.
“We went down for a couple of years and a lot of people put in a lot of hard work. We’ve excited to be back in the Barclay Shield finals.
Rosanna made 7-201 from its 40 overs with Thomas Bourke making 90.
Rubal Singh Dhillon and Uzair Abdullah took two wickets each for the Bulls.
After a strong start the Bulls then lost wickets in clumps, before some small partnerships.
At 6-193 the Bulls were on track for victory before they lost both set batters and another wicket.
The Bulls managed to just get home, hitting the winning runs with two balls remaining finishing 9-202.
Prabhnoor Bhalla top scored with 65 at the top of the order, while skipper Andrew Fairchild made a handy 43.
Adams said they made the job on Saturday a bit harder than it should have been.
“If we would have lost, I don’t think we would have been able to handle the Macleod game going down to the wire.
“We lost a few wickets late, but were able to get over the line. The guys were still pretty confident to get across the line, but it was just harder than it should have been.”
The Bulls will now face Riverside in a semi final with a grand final spot on the line.
Adams said Riverside had been the team to beat all season.
“It’s always a big challenge,” he said. “On our day we have plenty of talent and ability to put it all together.
“We’ll play our best cricket and see what happens.
Bundoora United and Epping both finished their seasons with wins on Saturday.
The Bulldogs played out a thriller as well, sneaking home against Research Eltham Collegians.
The Bulldogs made 9-146 from their overs. Skipper Joel Thompson top scored with 33.
The Collegians were bowled out for 135 with two balls remaining.
Narada Ratnayake and Lee Solar took three wickets each for the Bulldogs.
Epping had a solid win against North Eltham Wanderers.
The Wanderers were bowled out for 106 in the 35th over.
Todd Hughes took 4-17 off eight overs.
The Pingers run chase wasn’t the easiest but they got the job done, finishing 7-107.
Shanyn Kearney top scored with 42.
