Berwick breezed past Hallam Kalora Park and knocked out last year’s grand finalists with a seven-wicket win in the DDCA Turf 1 elimination final.
The Hawks were just a couple of wickets away from breaking the Bucks in the decider at Arch Brown Reserve last season, but now they will be forced to watch on for the remainder of the finals.
Berwick restricted the Hawks to just 192 before chasing the total on Sunday inside 50 overs.
The Bears won the toss and sent the visitors in first, but Hallam Kalora Park’s openers responded well.
Ben Hillard (30) and Jagveer Hayer (31) put on 53 runs for the first wicket and looked comfortable.
That is until Toby Wills, not for the first time this season, turned the game on its head with the ball.
The fast bowler got the first wicket of the day with a short ball in his third over, getting Hillard caught.
Then he produced a memorable next over, snicking off Jawid Khan (duck) on the second ball of the 16th over … the Hawks had now lost 2/5 and that was about to get even worse.
Three balls later, Wills released a delivery which crashed into the leg of new batter Damith Perera and rolled onto the stumps – Perera also gone for a third-ball duck.
Wills continued to challenge the batters and while Vinuda Liyanage got the crucial wicket of Hayer LBW, Wills soon had a fourth when he got Leigh Booth (22) shortly after tea – the score at 5/115.
Jordan Hammond has led by example all season with bat and ball for Hallam Kalora Park.
And the captain was once again the player who stood up and anchored the innings, desperate to keep his team in the hunt.
He found a contributor in Austin Fardell (30) and the pair combined for a 57-run partnership, Hammond eventually dismissed LBW by Elliot Mathews for 49.
At 9/192 after 73 overs, the Hawks declared in hope of getting a few late wickets on day one – Wills ending the innings with 4/31 off 12 overs.
But at stumps, the Bears had put themselves in a great winning position at 0/28 off seven overs, with Lachlan Brown (18 not out) and Jarryd Wills (10 not out) occupying the crease.
On Sunday, Hammond got a much-needed breakthrough when Brown (24) popped the ball up to Booth at cover to leave the score at 1/39.
A 61-run partnership followed as Wills (43) and Jake Hancock (35) set up the game to get the score to 3/120, requiring just 73 runs to win.
Skipper Michael Wallace (53 not out) came in and continued his fine form alongside Chathura Imbulagoda (40 not out) to see the Bears home to an easy victory.
Berwick will head into this week’s preliminary final fresh and full of confidence as it attempts to bring down the Bucks.
