Coro skipper Haydn Pascoe gets ready to run after finding a gap in the gully.
IT'S not over until it's over.
It is one of the oldest sporting cliches in the book, yet it could not ring more true as the final round of the local first-grade cricket season winds down.
The battle for the minor premiership will resume when Coro and Diggers return to Exies No.2 tomorrow, and the Cougars need no reminder that there is still a job to be done despite being just five wickets away from wrapping up first innings points.
Diggers finished on 5-55 chasing Coro's 130 when stumps were called last week, with victory to seal top spot and the double chance in the finals for the winners.
It seems likely that team will be the Cougars but after last season's incredible first-grade grand final, when an amazing second day saw Diggers claw back from first innings defeat to take the title, there won't be any chances taken.
"They've got a knack of coming back from nowhere like they did in the grand final," Coro captain Haydn Pascoe said.
"I was on the sidelines that day with all the boys and we were basically celebrating before it was finished.
"Then they sent us into bat after we'd already won (the first innings) and bowled us out for 50.
"It was one of the greatest wins I've ever seen, as much as I hate to say it.
"I think it's dawned on us all after that it's never really over until you get the last wicket."
Pascoe's counterpart, Diggers skipper Nathan Smith, said the Cougars should have learned a lesson from that defeat and predicted the second innings of the game tomorrow could still have a twist to it.
"It just depends on the early stages. We've got four or five good batsmen to come, so fingers crossed," he said.
"The game's probably 50/50 but I like our chances. We can still do it, we only need 75 runs."
There is less riding on the results of the other two first-grade games in Griffith tomorrow, with the result in both matches a foregone conclusion.
Exies requires just two more wickets at West End Oval to beat the Yenda Jets, who are officially out of the finals race, while Hanwood batsman Kris Hicken will start his side's match with winless Leagues on an unbeaten 96.
Having locked up fourth spot on the ladder, Hanwood has already secured a first innings win over the Panthers and are well-positioned for an outright victory.