Nestles coach Alex Strauch praised his club's culture following its history-breaking Sungold Twenty20 Cup win on Thursday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Factory secured its first Sungold Cup - and a $15,000 cheque - holding off Hamilton-based College Cricket Club's potent attack in the final over of the decider to secure the three-wicket win at Allansford's Uebergang Oval.
Strauch said the victory was the culmination of a lot of hard work to build depth within the club, as well as fine-tune its game.
"To see that come to fruition as a coach is pretty pleasing," he said. "I'm very proud of our team and our club.
"It's on show today that all these people are watching, we've got the right culture and we're going about it the right way."
Geoff Williams, who was awarded best on ground for a classy half century, said he was thrilled with the winning result in what was the club's first time making it through to the semi-final stages.
"Never made it to the Sungold day, we've made two or three WDCA finals when there was only one team who made it through," he said.
"Shows we're a good little team but we've still got to find five per cent, there is still plenty of stuff for us to work on."
The Factory, who defeated fellow Warrnambool and District Cricket Association rival Port Fairy in the semi final, looked in trouble early chasing College's 8-117 after losing three of its top batsmen - Tim Ludeman (0), Ben Dobson (8) and skipper Jacob Hetherington (5) - cheaply.
But a solid 67-run partnership between Williams (56 from 48) and Sanjaya Chathuranga (22) righted the ship.
"It's quite funny, (Sanjaya) cramped on the second ball he was out there and I thought, 'dear, fours and sixes or out for Sunny', but he ran hard between the wickets," Williams said. "Sometimes in T20 all you need is one partnership and someone to be set."
Williams said the plan was to finish the game in the 18th or 19th over, though two late run-outs by College in the 19th over pushed the game into its final over.
Without Williams and Chathuranga at the crease, it was Will Ringin and Will White who brought up the winning runs, White scoring the winning boundary on his first ball.
Strauch is hopeful the reward for effort will translate into more success in the one-day format, the Factory second on the ladder with six home-and-away games remaining.
"If we had gone into the rest of the Saturday season having lost two (T20) finals, you can't lie, it would play on you," he said. "We're back at it Saturday... and have a couple big games coming up.
"We need to take this momentum and take it into the second half of the year."
College, who defeated Colac-based club Irrewarra in the semi final, produced a valiant performance, led by 17-year-old skipper Henry Bensch.
College's Adrian Burn (38 runs from 33 balls) and opener Heath Schmidt (25 from 27) led the batting with Bensch pinching the prized scalps of Ludeman and Hetherington.
Matt Price (3-18) and Hetherington (3-27) were Nestles' pick of the bowlers.
Earlier in the day, Nestles advanced to the grand final in thrilling fashion, defeating WDCA Twenty20 champions Port Fairy following the competition's first-ever super over showdown.
With both teams scoring nine in the super over, the result was ultimately decided by sixes scored, which favoured Nestles 6-5.
Speaking after the semi final, Hetherington said his side was pleased to find itself on the right side of the win.
"You don't get too many games which come down to the super over," he said. "The last couple of months we've really built our T20 game and are improving that. It gives us a lot more momentum heading into the rest of the season."
Led by a quick-fire 48 from Hetherington, the Factory posted 9-132 from their 20 overs against the Pirates.
Port Fairy's Sam Allen (3-24) led his team's attack, with the Pirates picking up some late wickets via run-outs.
In a thrilling chase, the Pirates levelled the game on the final ball after Jason Perera hit the two runs needed to secure the super over and bring up his half century in the process.
Williams gave the Pirates plenty of headaches late in the innings, with consecutive wickets of Kaden Wilson and Allen in the last over.
MORE SPORT:
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:
- Bookmark https://www.standard.net.au/
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines and newsletters
- Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn
- Tap here to open our Google News page
- Join our Courts and Crime Facebook group and our dedicated Sport Facebook group
- Subscribe