St John’s Field (Western Stars won toss): Western Stars beat Willow Cuts by five wickets

Western Stars further boosted their Logic Premier Division survival chances with a five-wicket victory against relegation rivals Willow Cuts at St John’s Field yesterday.

Stars, who ended their six-game losing streak with an eight-wicket win over struggling Cleveland County last weekend, chased down Cuts’ total of 153 with 15 balls to spare in a match reduced to 29 overs per side because of rain.

Wendell Smith, the Stars coach, described his team’s win as crucial and admits he turned up the intensity in training during the past few weeks in an effort to motivate his side.

“We didn’t want to be caught up in the mix of a relegation battle and Willow Cuts and Cleveland are two good teams,” said Smith, whose side are fourth in the table. “I stepped up the intensity and lost my voice in training as I’ve been pushing the guys harder during the past few weeks.

“I knew we had to get these points and we can go into Cup Match feeling a bit better now.

“I told the guys last week we needed to beat Cleveland and Willow Cuts because St David’s and Bailey’s Bay are the quality teams and we need to be playing out of our skin to beat them.”

Cuts made a confident start to their innings with Dwight Basden, the Cuts captain, who scored 83, and Ramar Simons putting on a century stand for the first wicket.

When Makai Young trapped Simons leg-before for 36 the momentum started to shift in Stars’s favour, especially when danger man Dean Stephens was dismissed first ball by Brian Hall.

Young and Hall both claimed three wickets each as Cuts were restricted to 153 from their allotted 29 overs to leave Stars feeling confident about chasing down their target.

“Once we made the initial breakthrough and then Dean Stephen went first ball that was critical as he could have pushed them to 180 or 190,” Smith said.

“That was probably the key moment of the game. Makai Young bowled a good spell at the death and only went for a couple in his last two overs.”

Stars made a decent enough start with Wayne Campbell hitting a quick-fire 19 but they were reduced to 32 for two when No 3 Young was bowled for four by Sher-maur Gomes.

When opener Temiko Wilson also had his stumps scattered by Gomes for 19, Smith admitted he began to have some jitters about his team’s chances of victory.

“I was a little concerned when Temiko got bowled because he usually bats throughout the innings for us,” Smith said.

Ian Armstrong steadied the ship, however, scoring 43, while Justin Robinson, the Stars captain, added 22 to put their team firmly in control.

Smith also praised the impact of Treadwell Gibbons Jr who returned from injury against Cleveland last weekend and hit 19 not out yesterday to push Stars over the finish line.

“When Tready Gibbons is in our team it seems there’s a little more confidence flowing through us because we realise we have a real quality player,” Smith said.

“He played last week and had a good knock [21] and today he was fatigued after the Cup Match trials so I put him right in the middle of the order.

“I didn’t know just how good a player he is until he came to play with me as a coach.”