Southampton Rangers, the champions, retained the Western Counties trophy without hardly breaking a sweat against a depleted Willow Cuts at Southampton Oval on Saturday.

Rangers rolled Cuts over cheaply after sending them into bat on a good batting track and then romped to a convincing eight-wicket victory with 36 overs to spare.

Leading the charge was all-rounder Derrick Brangman who claimed four wickets — that included two maiden wickets — with his left-arm spin and thumped an unbeaten 43 from 32 balls.

Cuts were forced to go with four colts due to the unavailability of Malachi Jones, the captain, Deunte Darrell, Kavon Fubler, Sheroy Fubler and Dean Stephens whose absences deprived the challengers of some of their key players.

“The players were geared up to play today and I am very impressed with the way they played,” Ricky Brangman, the Rangers coach, said. “They played extremely well.”

Sharing the new ball with Kevin Tucker, the seam bowler, Brangman kept Cuts’ front line batsmen on the back foot with some disciplined spin bowling, claiming two wickets for just six runs in his first six over spell.

He held a high return catch off his own bowling to send colt Shaquille Jones back in the pavilion after Tucker had made the initial breakthrough in the first over and then had another colt, Joseph Basden, caught by Rohaan Simons at mid off.

Brangman was brought back into the attack for a second spell in the 31st over with Cuts reeling at 51 for seven and mopped up the tail with consummate ease.

He trapped Kamal Bashir leg before and then had colt and last man Micah Simons caught by Vernon Eve at mid wicket.

Brangman finished with outstanding figures of four for six off 7.4 overs and did not concede a single run in his second spell that lasted ten balls until the last wicket tumbled in the 33rd over.

Cuts’ batsmen struggled from the outset and for the most part were the orchestrators of their own demise through a combination of poor shot selection and footwork.

Once Tucker rattled the stumps of opener Dwight Basden with a full length delivery a steady procession of batsmen made their way to and from the pavilion as Rangers’ slow bowlers tightened the screws.

Eve, the left-arm spinner, also took advantage of Cuts’ woeful batting display on the way to equally fine figures of three for 24 bowling his quota of overs unchanged from the northern end. Janeiro Tucker, the Rangers captain, off spin bowler Dion Stovell and opening bowler Tucker were all economical.

Janeiro seized one for six off seven overs with four maidens, Stovell had one for 13 off three overs with a maiden while Tucker snared one for eight off five overs that included a maiden.

Dexter Basden was the only Cuts’ batsman in double figures, nudging 15 from 70 balls that included two fours. There were 13 extras that went some way towards helping Cuts reach 50 runs in the 29th over.

Cuts scored only 13 runs off the fielding power play before slipping from 38 for five to 60 all out in just nine overs, with four wickets falling with no addition to the score.

In reply, Rangers raced to victory with minimum fuss.

Cuts’ morale was lifted after Eve and Alec Dore were both dismissed cheaply in the space of two overs off seam bowler Bashir.

Dexter Basden took a regulation catch off Eve at first slip after the batsman got an edge attempting to cut the ball.

After getting off the mark with a boundary through the deep cover boundary, Dore slashed at another delivery, got a thick outside edge and was held by Chris Foggo at second slip.

But any thoughts Cuts had of making further inroads were quickly dashed as Brangman and Chris Pitcher dropped anchor and carried Rangers safely across the line via an unbroken 51 run third wicket partnership in nine overs.

Fittingly, it was Brangman who ended the match emphatically with a six off Bashir that sailed over long on. The opening batsman struck four fours and two sixes.

Bashir, one of only three Cuts bowlers used, seized two for 30 off six overs.