A massive crowd of over 3000 fans witnessed a nail-biting finish to the 'Australia Day Goes GloBALL' cricket clash between the DEC Bushrangers and the Bombers.

Chasing an imposing target of 114, the Bombers managed to clinch a memorable victory after some creative work with the bat - and on the scoreboard - to win by 17 runs in the final over of the day.

Winning the toss and electing to bat, a number of head high bouncers from Essendon coach James Hird had the Bushrangers under pressure but they stood tall with a barrage of sixes high into the grandstand much to the delight of the crowd.

Some power hitting from Andrew McDonald, Matthew Wade and Aaron Finch helped push the Bushrangers total passed 100, with tailender Peter Siddle proving to be a handy contributor in the final over.

The Bombers made a disastrous start to their innings with Hird in all sorts after facing world class Twenty20 speedster Dirk Nannes who had the new rock.

To the chant of the excited crowd Siddle came to the crease and peppered Angus Monfries with a few short and quick deliveries after he'd talked his cricketing ability up in the lead up to the match.

With four over's remaining, the Bombers still required a massive 70 runs for victory and a comeback looked unlikely.

But against the odds, a massive partnership from Brent Stanton and Jason Winderlich smashed the home side into contention.

Winderlich top scored for the day with an unbeaten 40 runs including several big sixes into the crowd. So impressed with his batting performance, Victorian Matthew Wade offered the Bomber midfielder a spot in Bushrangers side.

"He hits a beautiful ball and to hit a six as clean and as big as that is remarkable that's for sure," Wade said during the match.

The Australia Day Goes GloBALL cricket match is an event proudly supported by iPrimus and brought to you by Cricket Victoria and the Essendon Football Club.

Launched in 2009, the GloBALL program is a joint initiative run by the Essendon Football Club and Cricket Victoria which aims to help international students and newly arrived migrants settle into life in Australia. In 2010, the program saw more than 4000 participants receive the opportunity to participate in various football and cricket activities including free entry to matches, clinics and tours.

A gold coin donation on entry into the ground will go towards the Flood appeal, with more details to come on the final amount raised.

26 JANUARY, 2011