Wellington Oval (Bailey’s Bay won toss): Bailey’s Bay beat Cleveland by seven wickets, D/L method

Bailey’s Bay continued their unbeaten start to the season with another comfortable win over a Cleveland side that paid the price for a slow scoring rate.

Cleveland posted just 132 for six in their 50 overs, scoring at less than two runs an over for the majority of their innings before posting 41 in the last ten overs.

In reply, the only anxiety for Bay was two rain delays, the second which brought the target down to 90 from 34 overs, after the teams went off at 52 for two at the fall of Rodney Trott in the twelfth over.

Fearing another stoppage, Bay took just four more overs to score the remaining 33 runs as Malachi Jones, pushed up to No 4, stroked 25 not out from 13 deliveries with two fours and a six.

Terryn Fray, the opening batsman, added 22 off 39 balls, while Dennico Hollis scored 17 and Trott 16.

Derek Musson claimed two wickets for Cleveland with his left-arm deliveries, though he gave up 36 runs in 3.4 overs after Trott welcomed him into the attack by hooking him for two sixes in his first over.

Musson got his revenge when Trott top edged another short delivery and Keishun Smith took the catch at backward square leg.

Earlier, Bay bowled a total of 11 maidens after Cleveland struggled for runs throughout their innings. After ten overs they had just 14 on the board and it remained under two run an over.

They edged to 46 after 30 overs and then picked up to 91 after 40, before Clay Darrell’s 34 from 53 balls late in the innings offered Cleveland some hope of reaching a reasonable total to defend.

“They looked like were just trying to bat out the overs and get a bonus point,” Irving Romaine, the Bay coach, said. “The rain came and if they had managed to hang on for a draw then it would have been an even more valuable point.

“The rain did come but held up enough and the umpires brought down the total that we needed and we went out there and knocked them off real quick. We needed to get in another nine overs [to constitute a game] and so we changed around the batting order and sent up Malachi to finish it off real quick.”

Jacobi Butterfield scored 22 not out from 42 balls from a four and a six late in the Cleveland innings, while opener Stephen Douglas Jr contributed 22 from 78 balls, 64 of which were dot balls. Anthony Bascome had a 13-ball duck and Steven Bremar scored two off thirteen balls as Cleveland were 12 for two.

Jason Simons was the next high man for Cleveland with 21 from 52 balls, of which 37 were dot balls.

Rodney Trott was the pick of the Bay bowlers with two for 28 from ten overs, while four other bowlers took a wicket each, with Zeko Burgess going for 17 in his nine overs, Derrick Brangman 14 in nine with two maidens, while Burton Outerbridge had impressive figures of one for five from six overs with three maidens.