Staring down the barrel of defeat after slumping to 7-82, Ryan Maguire and Luke Fleming combined for a crucial 88-run partnership to rescue their side as they chased 220.

The tail still had work to do once Fleming was run out for 35, with the Lakers requiring 23 runs from the 10^th wicket. 

Ultimately Maguire (80*) was the hero, steering his side past their target with just one wicket remaining.

“Ryan Maguire and Luke Fleming showed a lot of courage to turn that around and get the win from nowhere,” Lake Illawarra captain Mark Ulcigrai said. 

“Those guys that batted in the lower order were key. They dug in and worked with Ryan to get us home.”

Elsewhere on Saturday, Shellharbour made light work of Kookas, chasing down their opponent’s total of 9-232 inside 39 overs. 

Captain Ned Taylor (62) and Alex Brown (68*) were the bedrock of the innings, helping their side to 6-234. 

While pleased with the way he batted, Taylor was overall more impressed with the performances of his teammates.

“We went out there and played a lot of positive cricket and capitalised on inconsistent bowling,” Taylor said. “It’s always nice to score runs but I had a lot of support from Alex, Paul [Clarke] and Lachlan [Ritchie]. It was good for a few blokes to spend some time in the middle and get some runs.”

Finally, a century to Oak Flats captain Scott McAndrew led the Rats to a comfortable win over The Rail.