Bunbury Red defend women’s country week A-grade title with thrilling one-run grand final win over Geraldton

Bunbury Red defended their women’s country week A-grade title by the finest possible margin, winning a grand final thriller by one run over Geraldton at Leschenault Recreation Park on Monday. With the visitors needing two runs to win and one to force a super over from the final delivery, Olivia Bidwell — who had held the innings together with 47 from 60 deliveries — was not able to get bat on ball against BDCA seamer Lily Finlay. Batting first, a 43-run third-wicket stand between Hollie Perkin (22 from 38 deliveries) and Matilda Richings (16 from 23 deliveries) gave Bunbury a platform, but their dismissals inside the space of six balls left the contest evenly poised at 4-70 in the 11th over. Amber Boyd (17 not out from 28 balls) and Finlay (13 not out from 29 balls) battled to find the boundary but batted through to the conclusion of the innings, putting a defendable score of 5-119 on the board after their 20 overs. The Blue Swans made an excellent start in their bowling innings, with the first wicket falling courtesy of a diving Richings catch and Finlay and Lisa Smith claiming a victim each to reduce Geraldton to 3-30. With Bidwell settling into the anchor role, Belinda Burrows (32 from 27 balls) gave her side’s innings some much-needed impetus, but could only pick out Finlay at short fine leg when trying to take Lisa Smith (2-14 from four overs) over the leg side in the 15th over. Geraldton required 35 runs from the last five overs but stayed largely in touch with their target, courtesy of new batter Joanne Walker (12 from 10 deliveries) heaving a six over the leg side and some hard running between the wickets putting pressure on Bunbury’s fielders. Nine was needed from the final over and Bidwell and Abby Green were not able to come up with a boundary, but did enough to take the game deep. A stumping on the final ball gave Finlay figures of 3-17 from her four overs, while Lisa Smith (2-14 from four overs) showed her experience under pressure. West Pilbara won the B-grade title with a thumping nine-wicket victory over Geraldton White. Ashleigh Faneco (3-6 from four overs) and Harmony Brown (2-5 from two overs) shone with the ball as the winners bowled out their opponents for just 43, with Kiara Ganzer (31 not out from 24 balls) in fine form as they tracked down their target with 74 balls to spare.