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THE Bendigo District Cricket Association's Melbourne Country Week mission is accomplished - return to Provincial Group.
Now the opportunity awaits on Friday to add some icing to the cake when Bendigo takes on Ballarat in the division two grand final at Noble Park.
By simply qualifying for Friday's grand final - rather than having to win it - Bendigo has earned promotion back into the top tier of Melbourne Country Week next year.
Bendigo booked its berth back in Provincial Group by defeating Leongatha by 78 runs in Thursday's semi-final at Brunswick to continue its unbeaten carnival.
"I'm extremely proud of the boys. The whole campaign has been based on Thursday and to execute our plans with bat and ball the way we did today was a really pleasing outcome," Bendigo coach Shane Koop said.
"The boys have been outstanding all week in driving high standards."
Just as it had done on the previous three days Bendigo batted first, with its 9-267 its highest score of the carnival. And like the previous day's victory over Murray Valley the innings featured a partnership of more than 100.
Strathdale-Maristians' team-mates Andrew Chalkley (72) and skipper Ben DeAraugo (66 n.o.) added 110 for the fifth wicket after Bendigo had been 4-77.
Chalkley scored at a better than a run-a-ball; his 72 coming off just 67 deliveries with five fours and three sixes in what was his first half-century for Bendigo at Melbourne Country Week.
DeAraugo's unbeaten 66 set a new benchmark for his highest score at Melbourne in what was his 45th Country Week innings.
Coming off scores of 3, 0 and 0 in his first three hits of the week, Rhys Irwin regained some confidence with the bat with a brisk 34 of 28 late to push Bendigo to its highest score since 2015.
Irwin added 53 for the ninth wicket with DeAraugo after starting his innings when Scott Trollope was run out for a diamond duck.
As has been the case all week, Bendigo's batting effort was backed up by another strong showing with the ball that began from the outset when Leongatha's openers Sam Huitema and Jack Ginnane were both dismissed for golden ducks.
From 2-0, Leongatha fought its way to 189.
Huitema was bowled by Adam Burns to be the first of his four victims.
Burns followed up his 3-19 the previous day with 4-31 off 10 overs.
Trollope (2-41) and Jake Klemm (2-22) were also multiple wicket-takers for Bendigo, which would have wrapped the win up much earlier had it not been for Leongatha's Sahan Perera, who played a lone hand of 90.
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