Wicketkeeper Sinclair Smith justified his promotion up the batting order as he scored 53 not out to lead Bailey’s Bay in a successful run chase for their first win in the One Premier Division this season as they beat Western Stars by seven wickets at Sea Breeze Oval yesterday.

Stars were dismissed for just 139 in 43.1 overs, with Bay taking just 30.2 overs to reach their target. Smith faced 53 balls in 63 minutes and hit seven fours and a six. He was quick to punish short deliveries from the spinners bowling at the club end, pulling with good effect to the mid-wicket boundary for the bulk of his runs.

Smith came to the crease after Terryn Fray and Malachi Jones put on 46 for the first wicket. After Fray’s dismissal for 19 to a lofted shot to long-off where Seth Campbell held the catch, Smith and Jones added a further 28 for the second wicket.

Bay had 48 on the board when Jones was put down by Tre Manders on the cover boundary, Jones making Stars play by going on to score 42 off 54 balls with six fours before Jaiden Manders took a more difficult chance at long-off to dismiss him off spinner PJ Thomas. After captain Rodney Trott was run out for two on 102 for three, Smith and Stephen Outerbridge (21 not out) went on to complete the victory with a stand of 40 in less than three overs.

“I felt good, coming off a good knock yesterday [28] at the top of the order in the Cup Match trial, so I thought I middled it well and got promoted today,” Smith said. “I seized the moment, I preserved my wicket and brought it home for the boys.” Smith said he was able to read the bounce of the wicket to good effect during the Stars innings and applied it to his batting. “Being out there for 50 overs and watching the ball come off the pitch made it pretty easy to pick it up when I was batting,” he stated.

“It was a nice team effort, we restricted them to a decent total and then knocked it down with minimum wickets lost. It’s something we’ve been working on and it is nice to see it come together for the team. We have a big match next weekend in St David’s and then we’ll take it Sunday to Sunday.”

The Bay bowlers took wickets at regular intervals after winning the toss and asking Stars to bat. Ryan Tyrrell was run out with 11 runs on the board before a second wicket stand of 29 — their biggest — between cousins Jaiden Manders and Tre Manders steadied things a bit before wickets began falling again as they slumped to 76 for five.

Tre, playing against his former team, was the top batsman for Stars with 45 from 95 balls in 147 minutes off three boundaries, while Jaiden scored 23, also from two fours and a six. Seion Darrell’s 19 in the tail end was the only other double-figure contribution for Stars who had three run outs in their innings.

Derrick Brangman and Zeko Burgess both took two wickets for Bay, Burgess finishing with two for 26 off eight and Brangman two for 30 off 9.1.