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Victoria's Sheffield Shield title hopes are over after they crashed to a 247-run loss to Western Australia at the WACA Ground.
Paceman Joel Paris has starred with bat and ball to help lift Western Australia to a crushing 247-run Sheffield Shield win over Victoria at the WACA Ground.
Chasing 454 for victory, the Bushrangers were bowled out for 206 shortly before tea on the final day on Sunday.
Matt Short (37), Seb Gotch (35), Peter Handscomb (29), and Marcus Harris (22) all made starts, but no one was able to go on with the job.
Paris snared the key scalps of Harris, Handscomb, and Nic Maddinson (5) among his haul of 5-33 in a man-of-the-match display.
He received excellent support from Matthew Kelly, who made the breakthrough late on the third day when he bowled opener Travis Dean for three.
Kelly (2-35) also had Short caught behind by Josh Inglis on Sunday.
Sam Whiteman was the star for the home side in their second innings of 5(dec)-269 with a quickfire 104.
The result ends Victoria's hopes of reaching the final, but WA (26.7 points) can still qualify if they secure an outright win against Tasmania in the last round and other results go their way.
Queensland (30.8 points) and NSW (29 points) are still in the box seat to make the final on April 15-19.
"It was no secret we needed to win this game to keep our season alive," Paris said.
"We've done that now, and we look forward to the last game against Tasmania to hopefully get into the Shield final.
"It's do-or-die now, we know that. That's how we're going to play our cricket. Leave nothing out there, nothing to lose.
"I'm sure if we put those same things in practise for the last game, I'm sure we'll get the result as well."
Paris scored an unbeaten 102 batting at No.8 in WA's first innings - his maiden first-class century.
"It's always nice contributing," he said.
"The bowlers spoke to (assistant coach) Beau Casson before the game, and he said this game was going to be really important for lower-order contributions with the bat, and he was right.
"The bowlers do a lot of work on their batting, especially this pre-season. It's nice to see those efforts coming through."
