Among a Goulburn side with a combined decades of high-level cricketing experience, Sunday's Stribley Shield final against Cootamundra was won on the back of 15-year-old Raheem Abdul's all-round effort.
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The home side batted first at Seiffert Oval, but the same struggles which have dogged their season struck once again early in the first innings.
After nine overs, Raheem and Dan Cooper came together at the wicket when Goulburn was 3-18. With their side teetering at the brink of a disastrous collapse, the pair put on 51 runs together.
Following Cooper's dismissal for 26 and Raheem's for 33 (the highest score of the match), Goulburn's last five wickets fell for eight runs for a total of 100 all out.
"To be honest, I was quite confident [after the first innings]," Goulburn captain Dane Stevenson said.
"Obviously 100 isn't a large score to defend but it's finals cricket, any score is defendable. Another 40 or 50 would'be been lovely but ... we lost too many wickets back to back."
Stevenson also praised the Raheem's innings, which was built around the composure of a man far beyond his years.
"He did a really good job opening the batting and held up the scoreboard and kept it ticking," he said. "Unfortunately he lost too many fellas around him."
Under the considerable pressure of defending a small total, Goulburn's bowlers rose to the challenge admirably.
Brad Smith took the new ball for the home side, with Raheem at the other end, and the pair combined for a miserly opening spell which saw the Cootamundra openers cobble together 12 runs from 12 overs.
This period of the match saw Raheem bowl six over for five maidens and two runs conceded.
After the lunch break, Goulburn's bowlers planned to continue squeezing the Cootamundra batsmen, and executed it to perfection.
"There were a lot of plays and misses, and sometimes that's frustrating, but we stuck to our game plan and ground them into the dirt," Stevenson said.
"We just kept turning the screws ... [and] really ground them down, it was really pleasing to be a part of."
The visiting openers battled for a stand of 39, but could not prevent wickets falling thick and fast as all of the Goulburn bowlers reaped their share.
Cootamundra lost five wickets for nine runs which left their chase in tatters at 5-48, before captain Nathan Corby and Gene Kessell united for a last stand.
The sixth-wicket pair added 29 runs before Raheem once again made his presence felt with what Cootamundra District Cricket administrator, Pat Kerin, described as the "ball of the match" to dismiss Corby.
The young man then cleaned up the tail to finish with 3-13 and the Man of the Match award after Cootamundra was bowled out for 91.
"Raheem's performance yesterday was phenomenal, 30-odd with the bat and 3-13 off ten, that got him the Man of the Match award and it was thoroughly deserved," Stevenson said.
"His first spell was phenomenal and his second spell he gained about a yard in pace, he steamed in and really took it to the Coota batters."
The rest of the wickets were spread relatively evenly among Goulburn's bowlers in the course of the nine-run win, whose collective effort drew emphatic praise from Stevenson.
"To be honest, that's one of the most complete bowling and fielding efforts I've seen in 30 years of cricket," he said.
"For a competition with only four first grade teams,a lot of people probably don't expect the quality of cricket that we can produce when we're at full strength. There's a lot of people who played the last few games who are passionate about our success at rep cricket."
The Goulburn team will have the chance to further add to their trophy cabinet this weekend, with the Burns Cup final scheduled against Far South Coast.
The match will take place at Rotary Oval in Cooma from 10am on Sunday, March 1.
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