A BRILLIANT hand from Michael De Iacovo underpins Bentleigh Uniting’s victory over Wendouree in the Cricket Victoria Statewide Twenty20 Cup.
UNITING they stand, at the top of Twenty20 community cricket.
South East Cricket Association club Bentleigh Uniting on Sunday lifted the Cricket Victoria Statewide Twenty20 Cup after waltzing past Wendouree in the final at Eastern Oval.
Uniting restricted the Ballarat club to 7-123 and ran down its target inside 15 overs, dropping only three wickets along the way.
Michael De Iacovo was named man of the match after blasting 75 not out off 51 deliveries and bringing up the winning runs with a boundary.
A big contingent of Bentleigh Uniting supporters made the trip to the final and after the match joined the players for a premiership pic.
“The maroon and gold army travels anywhere,’’ Uniting president John Halliday bubbled.
He said the team, captained by former St Kilda all-rounder Glenn Lalor, “absolutely turned it on’’.
De Iacovo, he said, found the boundary in the first four overs but also took singles to break up the field.
“He exploded out of the blokes. He set the whole game up. He’s a classy young man.’’
Lalor said all his bowlers played their part, and Uniting’s fielding was excellent.
The final was a rematch of the 2012 decider, when Wendouree won at the MCG.
Bentleigh Uniting’s path to the state title took in victories over Bentleigh, Cranbourne (in a bowl-off), Ashburton Willows and Altona North.
It had to play away games in the turf competition since it plays on a synthetic wicket at Centenary Park in East Bentleigh.
Lalor had great success at St Kilda.
Asked how Uniting’s Twenty20 title compared to his Premier Cricket premierships, he said: “People ask me that all the time. For a local club that plays on synthetic and had to travel to away games, not knowing what we were going to get in terms of the turf wickets — some of them were substandard, some of them were OK — to beat these sides on their home decks ... it’s a really good effort.
“It’s certainly up there but I don’t know how far up there.’’
Lalor said it was unfortunate this year’s final had to be moved away from the MCG because of World Cup fixtures.
“It probably lost a little bit of its varnish not being but at the end of the day the name’s still on the trophy.’’
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