LAURIMAR’S season ended at the penultimate hurdle with a loss to Panton Hill in Diamond Valley Cricket Association’s Mash Shield preliminary final at the weekend.
The Power bowled well to restrict the dangerous Panton Hill batting line-up to 160 after losing the toss, with Scott Toull’s 3/18 from six overs leading the way and support from Michael Peters (2/7).
Laurimar lost captain Jake Zerella early, but looked on track to chase the total after reaching the drinks break at 2/86.
But a flurry of wickets fell between overs 20 and 30 and the Power were never able to recover. The side was bowled out for 143 in the final over, 18 runs short of victory.
Zerella said the defeat was tough to swallow, but vowed his team would be back in contention next season.
“We left ourselves too much to do in the last 10 overs and couldn’t quite get there in the end,” he said.
“I’m proud of the way we’ve played during the year, especially given that we’ve had a couple of injuries and some blokes haven’t been fit. We did well to get to where we were and the boys fought it out right until the end, so you can’t ask for much more than that.”
