Cricket
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A HANWOOD heroine showed "great heart" to help her side claim the third-grade premiership on Saturday.
Batting second, Coro fell just five runs short of Hanwood's 118 run total, but the result would likely have gone the other way if not for a dogged final-wicket stand by Hanwood's only girl, Elise West.
Hanwood coach Duncan McWhirter thought Coro was going to skittle his side with nine overs left in the first innings and an indefensible score.
"There's no doubt the last-wicket stand was match winning for us, because without it we would have been rolled with eight or nine overs left and only 97 runs on the board - Coro would have passed that no worries," McWhirter said.
"The 21-run partnership at the end came from a couple of our underdogs, Isaac Campbell and Elise West, and it's certainly not something you expect from the last batters.
"It's pretty special from the only girl in the team, especially because she wore a couple of balls and kept playing on showing great heart."
The backbone of the Hanwood innings was opener Luke Docherty who put on 42 patient runs while batsmen fell around him, reminiscent of his century earlier in the season.
Coro's Angus Kennedy picked up 4-17 off seven overs which saw Hanwood crumble to 10-97, but the side still had their 11th and 12th batters to come.
In response Coro's Will Kennedy (28), Dean Bennett (21) and Angus Kennedy (24) batted admirably, but tight bowling from Hanwood forced Coro to play lofted shots which were snapped up.
Seven of Coro's batsmen were caught out trying to take the aerial route to premiership victory.
Coro had victory in their sights needing just 15 runs from the last three overs but they weren't able to get the ball away, finding Isaac Campbell (2-29) particularly troubling.
McWhirter paid credit to an admirable opposition, great groundsmen and his own jubilant players.
"The groundsmen worked really hard all week so all credit to them for a surprisingly excellent pitch given the rain we had," he said.
"Congratulations to Coro for being very competitive throughout the season and they know the nail-biter final could very easily have gone the other way.
"The Hanwood players were tickled pink with the victory, they did well just to get to the semis and then to string three wins together, they were overjoyed, they just loved it."