It took Lalor Warriors until the last ball of the match in the Northern Region T20 grand final to secure its first premiership in the competition.
After struggling with the bat to make only 9-99, the Warriors were in trouble when Plenty had reached 4-70 and needed well below a run a ball to win.
But the wicket of Daniel Sartori, the only batsman of either side to get going, turned the game back in the Warriors’ favour.
In the end, Plenty needed six runs from the final ball to win but could manage only four to give Lalor victory by one run.
Warriors captain Todd Hughes said it was good to finally add more silverware to the cabinet, as the club’s last senior premiership was the North Metro Cricket Association’s Jika Shield in the 2009-10 season.
“It was a good win for the club,” Hughes said.
“Obviously the T20 competition isn’t the main aim of the season, but it’s good for the club and it’s good to see the smiles when you win.”
Hughes said that despite his side’s struggles with the bat they were always still in with a chance.
“It was the type of pitch where you needed time to get set,” Hughes said. “You needed 20 to 30 balls to settle. Scoring from ball one was hard and it was a difficult pitch to score runs on.”
For a second straight T20 match, Nick Christie top-scored for the Warriors, this time with 26. He was the only Warriors player to pass 20.
The Warriors got off to a perfect start with the ball before Sartori played his part.
“In the first over we picked up two wickets and we were confident,” Hughes said.
“They needed 25 or 26 off the last seven overs and were cruising. Sartori hit a top edge which went straight to our fielder on the boundary. They collapsed after that.
“All our bowlers did the job, Aaron [Wheatley], Brad [Winther] and Jae [Delcus] bowled very well and didn’t give them any width.”
Delcus took three wickets while Winther grabbed two.
The Warriors’ good form continued into Saturday, when they beat Darebin Chargers outright in the NMCA.
After a commanding day one in which they made 6-312, the Warriors bowled out the Chargers for 162 and 33 to win by 117 runs.
Jae Delcus took 4-11 in the second innings, and three other bowlers each took two wickets.
The outright win keeps the Warriors third on the ladder, two points behind second-placed Northcote United.
Ladder leaders Rivergum suffered a first loss of the season.
After Rivergum made 154 on day one of the match, North Brunswick/Rosebank passed the total easily to reach 7-225.
Rivergum was 0-12 in its second innings.
