Exies Diggers have taken the long road to the GDCA Second Grade title, and for the second straight season, they have walked away as premiers.
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Taking on the Coleambally Nomads in the decider, Diggers hopes were enhanced with Nomads captain Jacob Breed missing the decider due to a wedding.
It went from bad to worse for the Coleambally side as after winning the toss and electing to bat, Jack Weymouth-Smith (0) fell to the second ball of the innings when he was caught off the bowling of Damien Browning.
The Nomads' chances took another hit when Luke Roberts (6) fell to the bowling of Daniel Dossetor to see the minor premiers fall to 2/15, but they were able to fight back through Cooper Smith and Sanil Babu.
The third wicket pairing put on 52 before Nathan Brettschneider picked up Smith's wicket.
Brettschneider (3/27) and Mark Favell (2/27) proved difficult to deal with as Coleambally fell from 3/67 to 8/98.
Tim Edgcumbe (17) added some late runs before Craig Lugton (1/22) and Browning (2/12) were able to pick up the final two wickets to see the Nomads bowled out in final over for 119.
Not wanting to go down without a fight, Coleambally made it a difficult start to the chase as Edgcumbe was able to pick up the wickets of Rocky Perre (0) and Grant McMaster (0) in his first two overs.
That brought the dangerous Mick Duncan to the crease and he looked to make quick work of the chase as he took 19 runs from one Jeffery Phillpot over.
While Babu was able to pick up the wicket of Mark Favell (10), it did little to slow the progress from the Diggers side, which was sitting on 3/44 after 10 overs.
Duncan was able to bring up a fifty in a quick time before Babu (2/24) was finally able to pick up the wicket they needed, but the damage had already been done with the Diggers side, which needed 41 runs off 24 overs.
While Thomas Chapman (12) fell to the bowling of Edgcumbe (3/18), it only delayed the inevitable as Brett Owen (18*) and Browning (11*) were able to secure the five-wicket victory.