PENOLA held onto a thrilling victory over West Gambier on a tense final day in round four of Barber Shield cricket at Malseed Park on Saturday.
Ball dominated bat on the opening day and proceedings continued to go the bowlers way as runs were hard to come by with the game on the line.
The Roos chased 137 runs for victory, but started day two on the back foot after a top-order collapse of 3/15 on day one.
The home side’s misfortunes continued in the opening overs of the final week when nightwatchman Oliver Miles was out lbw to George Kidman for one.
His dismissal left West in the precarious position of 4/17, with the entire day’s play ahead.
Youngster Josh Cornolo was joined by Richard Crute and the pair looked to dig the Roos out of trouble against the relentless bowling of off-spinner Kidman and paceman Michael Waters.
Scoring proved difficult against the Penola duo, who consistently landed the ball in challenging areas.
It took 14 overs for the batsmen to score the first boundary of the day and it was brought up in style by Cornolo, with a maximum to push the team total above 50.
After a slow start, Cornolo and Crute started to lift the run rate and hit 14 runs off one Jack Mullan over to send a statement of intent.
The game appeared to be slipping away from the Eagles and the opposition’s aggression saw captain Jase Bateman bring himself into the attack to replace the spinning duo of Kidman and Mullan.
Bateman’s move proved to be a master-stoke.
He found a way to get past the bat of Cornolo and dismiss the youngster lbw for a fighting 35 from 122 balls at a crucial time.
The breakthrough gave Penola an avenue back into the game, but with just 67 runs required for victory and the dangerous Crute still at the crease, West remained slightly in front.
The experienced Shane Dycer joined his captain and the tension continued to build as the Eagles put the brakes on once again.
Dycer broke free with a pair of fours before he lost his defences to Curt Evans for 12.
With 47 runs needed to win, Crute was running out of partners and went on the attack.
He was the aggressor in a crucial 29-run partnership with Alex Hill, which appeared to put the home side in the box seat for victory.
But the return of Kidman and Waters with the ball rewrote the script.
Kidman brought the downfall of Hill for six, before a build up of dot-ball pressure saw Steven Hughes dismissed for a duck.
In the blink of an eye, Crute was left stranded with just 18 runs to win and two wickets in hand.
The Roos’ captain was tasked with the responsibility to guide his team home, but five balls later, Kidman finished Crute’s 115-ball resistance on 44.
A collapse of 3/1 left West’s last-wicket pair of Trueman Schrader and Conor Galpin with the difficult task to chase the required 18 runs against a fired up bowling unit.
The pair fought bravely for 57 balls and crept eight runs closer to victory during a nail-biting passage of play.
But the pace of Waters shattered the Roos’ dreams when Schreader was caught for four and the home side fell 10 agonising runs from victory.
Waters and Kidman teamed up to pick up four and three wickets respectively during a marathon effort, which saw the pair bowl the vast majority of overs.
The victorious Eagles strapped the pads on for the remaining 22 overs and the bowlers continued to dominate.
Penola struggled to score 6/73 before the close of play, with Mark Smith and Evans the top performers, while Crute and Cornolo teamed up again and picked up two and three victims respectively.
But it was small consolation for West, as it slipped to its second-consecutive defeat on home turf.
