Jeparit has the chance to defend the West Wimmera Cricket Association title that they won last season after they qualified for the 2017/18 grand final with an outright victory over Kiata on the Nhill College ground on Saturday.
They will take on the Nhill Tigers who confirmed their place in the decider courtesy of a forfeit win over Winiam.
The Redbacks made 206 runs on the first day of the game which Kiata needed to overtake to earn a place in the final. Jeparit went into the game one win ahead, but with an inferior percentage so a convincing win by Kiata would have brought the two teams on the same points and percentage would have determined which would progress.
A confident start to their innings saw the Highwaymen make it to 36 runs after 14 overs with the loss of just two wickets with openers Josh Lees (18) and Josh Cramer (17) setting the foundation for a tilt at the target.
What followed was an extradentary period of cricket where eight wickets fell for just 11 runs in 17 overs.
Jeremy Preston finished with 5 wickets for 12 runs from 11 overs which included a spell of five overs when he conceded only three runs from his last eight overs and took all five of his wickets. This also included three wicket maidens, in one of which he took three wickets, only narrowly missing taking a hat-trick when he took three wickets in four balls.
At the other end Adrian King took four wickets for six runs from five overs.
Another significant contribution was by Justin Knorpp who bowled four overs and did not concede a run.
Above - Justin Knorpp bowling to Kiata's Dom Colombera with batting partner Shanaye Alexander and umpire Jeff Muller looking on.
Beyond the first couple of batsmen the most defiance shown was the tenth wicket partnership between Dom Colombera and Shanaye Alexander who only put on three runs but were able to hold the Jeparit bowlers for eight overs.
Having not passed the follow-on target, Kiata was asked to bat again, and with very little chance of pushing for an outright victory, their batsmen played with more freedom with Todd Alexander making 29, Liam Albrecht contributing 44 and Josh Cramer hitting 45 after coming in at number eleven anchoring a second innings total of 148.
Eleven bowlers were used in this innings and the wickets were shared between Jack Crowhurst who took three, Graham Grinter with two and five others took one each.
This gave Jeparit an outright victory by an innings and 11 runs, and was sufficient to improve their percentage beyond that of the Nhill Tigers and move them into first place on the ladder.
Grand Final Preview
The grand final will be played next weekend over both Saturday and Sunday afternoons between Jeparit and the Nhill Tigers at Davis Park in Nhill, and each team will have their own incentive to take the premiership.
This group of Jeparit players have the opportunity to win back to back titles for their club for the first time since the mid 1960s whilst the Tigers have the incentive to erase the memories of their poor performance last season after winning the grand final in 1915/16.
Jeparit go into the game with the better form line of four wins in their last five games, , Nhill's only points in that time have come from forfeit wins over Winiam after they comfortably won their first four games.
Nhill HOME Hardwar West Wimmera Cricket Association Final Ladder
| | Points | %
| | Jeparit | 40 | 1.214
| | Nhill Tigers | 40 | 1.147
| | Kiata | 24 | 0.885
| | Winiam | 12 | 0.764
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Jeparit defeated Kiata
Jeparit 8/206
Kiata First Innings
| J Lees | lbw | b. J Preston | 18
| | J Cramer | ct A King | b. J Preston | 17
| | L Albrecht | ct J Hutson | b. A King | 4
| | T Alexander | ct T Inkster | b. A King | 3
| | D Webb | ct M Preston | b. A King | 0
| | J Harding | ct & | b. J Preston | 0
| | D Colombera | not out | | 2
| | Shaun Alexander | | b. J Preston | 0
| | J Brown | | b. J Preston | 0
| | L Cole | ct G Grinter | b. A King | 0
| | Shanaye Alexander | | b. J Crowhurst | 0
| | Sundries | | | 3
| | TOTAL | | 47
|
Jeparit Bowling
| | O | M | R | W
| | G Grinter | 5 | 0 | 17 | 0
| | J Preston | 11 | 4 | 12 | 5
| | B Keller | 5 | 2 | 10 | 0
| | A King | 5 | 2 | 6 | 4
| | J Knorpp | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0
| | J Crowhurst | 2.1 | 0 | 3 | 1
|
Kiata Second Innings
| T Alexander | | b. J Crowhurst | 29
| | J Harding | | b. A King | 4
| | D Colombera | ct A King | b. G Grinter | 10
| | D Webb | st M Preston | b. J Crowhurst | 0
| | L Albrecht | ct J Preston | b. T James | 44
| | Shaun Alexander | ct & | b. J Preston | 0
| | J Lees | ct A King | b. G Grinter | 4
| | J Brown | | b. J Knorpp | 0
| | L Cole | ct M Preston | b. J Crowhurst | 2
| | Shanaye Alexander | not out | | 5
| | J Cramer | | b. B Keller | 45
| | Sundries | | | 5
| | TOTAL | | 148
|
Jeparit Bowling
| | O | M | R | W
| | A King | 3 | 0 | 19 | 1
| | J Crowhurst | 11 | 2 | 65 | 3
| | T Inkster | 3 | 1 | 5 | 0
| | G Grinter | 3 | 1 | 11 | 2
| | J Preston | 3 | 0 | 8 | 1
| | J Knorpp | 3 | 0 | 6 | 1
| | J Hutson | 1 | 0 | 8 | 0
| | T James | 2 | 0 | 14 | 1
| | L Preston | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0
| | B Keller | 2.2 | 0 | 10 | 1
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