Goulburn Murray comfortably accounted for Murray Valley in their Bendigo Country Week division one decider at the QEO.

Goulburn Murray romped home by seven wickets – a result that was in stark contrast to day one of the carnival on Monday when they copped a 126-run belting from Murray Valley.

The victory was also revenge for losing last year’s grand final against rivals Murray Valley.

Just like last year’s grand final, the match was shortened to 35-overs-a-side and started at the earlier time of 9am on a day in which the forecast was for Bendigo to reach a top of 45 degrees.

As well as the searing heat – it was almost 43 degrees when the game finished at 1.42pm – the players also had to contend with hot wind to further add to the testing conditions.

Just as it had the previous four days, Murray Valley again won the toss and elected to bat and was quickly on the backfoot before fighting its was to 8-166.

Murray Valley had slumped to 3-17 in the eighth over, which included opener Wian Van Zyl again out for a duck when he top edged a pull shot and was caught by Charlie Hinks off Darcy Elliott (2-23).

Having made scores of 71, 57 and 61 on the first three days of the carnival, South African Van Zyl was out for 0 in his last two hits.

From the precarious 3-17, Goulburn Murray’s innings was rebuilt by knocks from Adam Decicco (40 n.o.), Andrew Hogan (37), Scott Morris (29) and Amar Ullah (28 n.o.), whose first two scoring shots were a pair of sixes.

Hogan took just seven scoring shots to make his first 27 runs – 4, 4, 1, 6, 4, 4, 4 – while Morris’ first 12 runs came through three boundaries.

The best with the ball for Goulburn Murray was import medium-pacer Vibhor Yadav, whose 3-30 off seven overs helped him earn man of the match honours.

Goulburn Murray made light work of its run-chase, only losing three wickets along the way and winning with 29 balls to spare as it replied with 3-172.

The cornerstone of the successful run-chase for Goulburn Murray was a 111-run partnership off 113 balls between Englishman Dale Shaw and Daniel Coombs.

They began their stand in the 10^th over with Goulburn Murray 2-43 and both made half-centuries – Shaw 69 n.o. and Coombs 62, with the pair combining for 11 boundaries and three sixes.

Coombs was dismissed 13 runs shy of victory when caught by a diving Angus Campbell at mid-off, while he earlier brought up his 50 with a straight six off Murray Valley’s Ash Quinn (1-33).

Classy left-hander Shaw brought up the winning runs in style for Goulburn Murray, launching Riley Gow (1-23) for a straight six down the ground off the first ball of the 31^st over.

As well as his three-for with the ball, Yadav also chipped in with 22 with the bat for Goulburn Murray.

The win was Goulburn Murray’s third division one title in its seven years since it was formed out of a merger between the Campaspe and Kyabram competitions.

The victorious Goulburn Murray team was captained by Matthew Hinks – the first time he has skippered a side at any level.

“It was great to have a mix of youth and experience to lean on and it was obviously a fantastic result today,” Hinks said.

“The boys bounced back really well from the first day when we couldn’t have played a worse game of cricket and were able to get better as the week wore on.”

On Yadav’s man-of-the-match performance, Hinks said: “He hit good areas his whole spell and gave us that stability through the middle of the innings to be able to tie up an end and restrict the run-rate.”

Neither bowling attack conceded either a wide or a no-ball for the match.

Friday was the third-consecutive grand final meeting between Goulburn Murray and Murray Valley, with the ledger now 2-1 in favour of Goulburn Murray.

Grassmere has earned promotion to division one next year after winning a one-run thriller against Colac in the division two grand final at Strathdale.

Despite the reduced overs, more than 400 runs were scored in the contest, which began with Grassmere posting 214 after being sent in.

Braden Hotker was in brutal touch for Grassmere in the middle order, plundering 86 off just 65 balls, with 66 of his runs coming in fours (nine) and sixes (five).

Grassmere had been 8-148 before Hotker and No.10 Ben Julius (41) added a pivotal 56 for the ninth wicket.

The further 10 runs Hotker and Nathan Shand (2 n.o.) squeezed out for the final wicket also proved vital in the final outcome

Deakin Carmichael (2-36), Mitchell McGlade (2-21), Oliver McGuane (2-15) and Charles Johns (2-18) all took two wickets apiece as Colac spread the load with the ball.

Grassmere’s total proved just enough by the barest of margins as Colac finished at 8-213 off its 35 overs to fall one run short.

Openers Alex Inglis (55) and Kade Parker (46) got the Colac innings away to a solid start with a 90-run stand for the first wicket,

However, Grassmere regained some momentum with a burst of 3-6 when Colac fell from a comfortable 2-135 to 5-141.

Colac’s Mitchell Buhrmann later hit the final ball of the innings for six to leave just one run the difference between the two sides.

Grassmere’s Patrick Mahony produced the game’s best bowling performance of 4-32 off seven overs to finish with nine scalps for the week.

Colac has now lost the past two division two grand finals having suffered a 45-run defeat to Wangaratta last year.

Northern United will remain in division three for another year after going down to Maryborough by seven wickets at Eaglehawk.

Northern United was all out for 92 batting first, before Maryborough chased its target down for the loss of three wickets in the 31^st over.

Have you signed up to the Bendigo Advertiser's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in central Victoria.