CRICKET might be a team game, but there was no denying the 2024 Ballarat Cricket Association grand final belonged to just one player, East Ballarat's Harry Ganley.
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It was the near perfect display from the star Hawks batter who fell just three runs short of back-to-back centuries as he dismantled one of, if not, the most experienced and professional bowling attacks in the BCA.
And just an hour into the final day, the teams knew where this grand final was headed as Golden Point skipper Josh Pegg shook the hands of his East Ballarat opposition, congratulating them on a job well done.
For Ganley, his scores of 156 not out and 97 will live long in the memories of those who were there to see it. Whenever they talk about great moments in the history of the East Ballarat Cricket Club, these twin innings' should go down as the top of all time.
As captain Jake Eyers said after the match, "it's Harry's world, we're just living in it". It summed up the occasion perfectly.
Ganley was modest after the game, saying it was just his game.
"The pitch flattened out pretty nicely by yesterday, which made batting a lot easier," Ganley said.
"I think I learned a lot from last year's finals series. I was really disappointed with how I went last year, I really knuckled down from about Christmas time to be in the best form I could be in, it's really paid off."
Of his first innings of 156 not out, Ganley said it was just a matter of doing what was needed for his team to post a competitive total.
"I went out to bat and I thought, we're going to need 200 runs here and we didn't have them, I just wanted to bat as I went and just get as many as I could to help the team.
Officially the margin was 396 runs with East Ballarat at 6-298 when the game was called. Saturday proved to be the key day with the Hawks blunting the Golden Point bowling attack to finishat 4-217. Harli Givvens' 60 coupled with solid and patient knocks from Lewis Hodgins and Chris Jerram made for a long day for the Point bowlers.
On Sunday, Ganley and fellow not out batter Abhilasha Rodrigo made sure there would be no comeback before Sam Cocks and Tom Walton had fun late. By 2pm, the game was all done.
The grand final win is East Ballarat's third in the past two years, with a Twenty20 title included in that as well.
"It's very, very special to be a part of this club," Ganley said. "It's something I'm very proud of to be part of a group like this.
"The past three weeks we've played 21 sessions of cricket and we've won them all. We're just playing brilliant cricket at the same time."
Eyers said he couldn't ask for more from his players.
"They are just a wonderful bunch of blokes. Three weeks I asked them to give me three weeks of cricket and they gave me three weeks of great cricket.
"I couldn't asked for much more. We started to get a few opening partnership which helped set us up. We've managed to find a way to play our best cricket at the right time of the year. The last two years we've done just that."
Golden Point captain Josh Pegg said his team had been completely outplayed in all facets of the game, but was proud of his team's efforts to come from outside the finals last season, to play-off for the title this year.
"Just too good, Harry had an unbelievable game, that's just cricket. They outplayed us in this game, there's no doubt about that," he said.
"It's been a good bounce back from us this year. To come back to second this year, it's an awesome effort."
DAY 3 AND 4 SCOREBOARD
East Ballarat 8-251 and 6-298 def Golden Point 153
East Ballarat Second Innings
Lewis Hodgins c: Mohomed Feshal b: Daniel White 27
Harli Givvens lbw: Manjula De Zoysa 60
Chris Jerram b: Daniel White 31
Harry Ganley c: Andrew Warrick b: Joshua Pegg 97
Jacob Eyers run out: Manjula De Zoysa, Andrew Falkner 0
Abhilasha Rodrigo c: Mohomed Feshal b: Daniel White 19
Samuel Cocks not out 36
Tom Walton not out 17
Extras 11
Total 6-298 (100 Overs)
Golden Point Bowling: Andrew Warrick 17-5-0-42, Daniel McDonald 11-1-0-37, Simon Ogilvie 12-2-0-55, Daniel White 13-3-3-27, Joshua Pegg 20-6-1-51, Mohomed Feshal 16-3-0-39, Manjula De Zoysa 10-3-1-21, Lachlan Anderson 1-0-0-15