The key reason why Keira will win the Cricket Illawarra competition

Coming into a huge clash with title rivals University in the penultimate round, Keira were sent in to bat and were only able to set a modest total of 147 after being bowled out in the 48^th over.

At the half-way stage you would have put your house on Uni getting home for a much needed victory, but an inspired team bowling effort saw Keira bowl out their opponents for just 110.

Their ability to share the wickets is such a massive factor coming into finals.

Skipper Rhys Voysey (2-19), Joshya Garnero (2-14), Aaron Kornberger (1-7), Ryan Cattle (2-25) and Troy Coleman (1-22) all shared the wickets to give Keira the victory and see them sit five points clear at the top of the table with one game left.

Keira captain Voysey said whilst he was proud of his bowling unit, Luke Hunter (44 not out) in the middle steadied the ship for them.

"I think the bowlers did a really good job as they have done all year," Voysey said.

"It's always been a genuine six-person effort, which is really good. From my perspective, the batting from Luke Hunter in the middle kept us together. We could have easily only made about 110, but he proved a pretty cool head in the middle and stayed around with the tail.

"He showed a lot of experience and he's a great guy to have in the team. So I was happy to see him score runs."

Heading into the final round the top four stands as Keira, Wollongong, University and Northern Districts. All four of them offer something different, according to Voysey.

"They are really strong and all very different sides," he said.

"I was chatting with the Uni guys and they agree that each side goes about their cricket in a different way. We accumulate our runs through the middle, Wollongong blast away at the top.

"It's all very different styles of cricket. It'll be an interesting finals series."

Around the grounds in other Cricket Illawarra games, defending champions Northern Districts romped home against Port Kembla by nine wickets, Dapto thumped Balgownie by 206 runs, Wollongong beat Corrimal by four wickets and Wests Illawarra beat IPCC by seven wickets.

There wasn't much action in South Coast cricket with rain wreaking havoc on proceedings.

Kookas and North Nowra got on the park put could not complete the contest whilst Ex Servos versus Bay and Basin and Albion Park and Shellharbour were both abandoned.

Lake Illawarra, The Rail and Kiama all had the bye.