Gallery | Nagambie chases down strong Old Students total to remain unbeaten from three in Haisman Shield

The travellers managed to rein Students in after Callan McCabe and Felix Odell began to put on a clinic and, staring down a target of 189 to win, level heads were needed.

Thankfully for Nagambie, the Lakers had those in spades.

Mark Nolan was the main crusader as Nagambie bulleted to a five-wicket win with seven overs remaining, leaving playing coach Zac Winter-Irving stoked with another result logged in the wins column.

“I think it was a pretty even contest throughout most of the day and then to chase down that total pretty convincingly, I’m very pleased with it,” he said.

“We were pretty confident to give ourselves the time, the deck flattened out a bit and batting only got easier as we got on.

“To have wickets in hand and bat all our overs out was pretty key.”

Students skipper McCabe top scored with 73 (five boundaries), making it through to the 40th over before James Auld removed him, while Ed Pike slashed a rapid 32 off 25 balls during the hosts’ post.

Odell (36 runs) was another to impact the scoreboard during Students’ 9-188 innings, leaving Nagambie with a fair old chase ahead.

The Lakers lost their coach early for five runs and, despite a dangerous start, Jonathan Moore fell in the same over as Mitch Winter-Irving to send a tendril of doubt bolting into the visitors’ camp.

However, that was batted away immediately once James Wilson and Mark Nolan got cracking, expertly manoeuvring their side out of trouble with hard running and savvy shot selection.

Both eventually met their demise, but not before Nolan had raised the bat, his 64 coming in clutch — as did Tom Barnes with an extravagant maximum to win the game.

Winter-Irving saved praise for Nolan, undoubtedly one of the competition’s premier cricketers, in the wake of a sublime game-turning innings, while also lauding two of the Lakers’ green talents.

“It was really good to see him (Nolan) back at his best ... he was manipulating the field and it was a really good innings by him,” he said.

“He was probably a bit disappointed he didn’t get right through there, but it was a top effort by him and (it’s) good to see him back in some form with the bat.

“Young Will O’Brien and James Auld, a couple of young fellas, it was good to see them get the result on the weekend.

“They’ve done a good job for us; it can be pretty hard bowling into the wind or even coming in at first and second change, so it was really good to see them get the results.”