A CENTURY from a captain and a half-century from a veteran in his first A grade game of the season were crucial in determining this season’s Grassmere Cricket Association (GCA) grand finalists, Killarney and Panmure.
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A ton from Crabs skipper Liam Cole helped his side chase down Hawkesdale’s competitive 9-260 yesterday, while Panmure batsman Brian Salmon, promoted from C grade, got the Bulldogs out of a sticky situation.
After losing captain Chris Bant (35) just before tea at Panmure, the host slumped to 6-69 in pursuit of Grassmere’s 168.
But Salmon stepped in and produced a salvaging unbeaten 58, which included a match-winning 60-run partnership for the seventh wicket with Daniel Meade (28).
Salmon then combined with Tim Condon (15no) to guide Panmure to 8-172.
Panmure’s James McKinnon praised the seasoned batsman, who made a total of 907 runs at an exceptional average of 113.38 in C grade in 2011-12.
“It was great for the young ones to see him bat,” he said.
McKinnon said Panmure was slightly concerned about its collapse yesterday. “But we had complete faith in our lower-order batsmen,” he said. “They’ve got us out of trouble in heaps of games.
“We were confident that we could bat right down to 11.”
That’s what they did, despite the best efforts of Grassmere paceman Ben Clark (4-42 off 18 overs) and promoted wicketkeeper Peter Sedgley, who took five catches and had no byes.
At Killarney yesterday, the home side used its opponent’s batting as inspiration in its hunt for 9-260.
“We just had to bat in partnerships like Hawkesdale did on Saturday,” Cole said.
“They did that really well, so we wanted to take a leaf out of their book. If we lost a wicket, we didn’t want to lose another one.”
After knocking his season-best score of 130, which included eight boundaries, Cole was dismissed.
“We needed three (runs) off 12 (balls) and we got the three to tie, then I went out,” he said. “James Cole came in and hit the winning runs.”
The best partnership came from Cole and Brett Sanderson (42no), who put on 91 runs for the fifth wicket.
The pick of the bowlers for the visitors was Daniel Roache (3-83 off 23 overs).
Killarney finished 6-262 to set up the grand final appointment with Panmure, which will be a rematch of the one-day final.