Somerset Cricket Club (Somerset won toss): Somerset beat St George’s by an innings and 34 runs

Somerset pulled off a dramatic innings and 34-run victory yesterday, despite a defiant 97-run stand for the ninth wicket between century-maker Onias Bascome and Zeko Burgess, which threatened to salvage an unlikely draw for St George’s.

Somerset won with 11.1 of the final 20 overs remaining, although fading light was threatening to come into play as the holders struggled to break up the partnership as both players played their best Cup Match innings, Bascome scoring a first century, 101, with valuable support from Burgess.

The fast bowler scored 25 in 103 minutes before he was last out, bowled by a turning ball from spinner Dion Stovell.

On the first ball of his previous over, Stovell trapped Bascome leg-before to end an innings that started just before tea and lasted until 7.05pm when he tried to sweep and was hit on the front pad. He batted for 191 minutes, faced 141 balls and hit 11 fours and five sixes.

Bascome was dismissed the over after hitting a six over long-on to bring up his century. The celebrations lasted more than ten minutes as fans and team-mates swarmed on to the pitch. He might have lost his concentration with the disruption, as he was out the first ball of the next over from Stovell who then ended the match with the first ball of his next over when he bowled Burgess.

Somerset looked set to competed a first innings victory in 70 years with plenty of time to spare. However, the challengers produced some stubborn batting at last with an eighth-wicket stand of 36 between Bascome and Charles Trott, which began to frustrate Somerset.

Even more frustrating was the stand between Bascome and Burgess for the next wicket, with spinner Chris Douglas walking off the field in dismay after being hit for 17 runs in his fifth over, including two sixes and a four. He quickly returned on the orders of team officials after the umpires refused to allow a substitute fielder to replace him.

Somerset, not surprisingly, enforced the follow-on after St George’s could manage only 121 in their first innings in reply to a mammoth 378 for nine posted by the champions on the first day. The 257-run deficit looked out of the reach of St George’s when they slumped from 64 for two in the fifteenth over to 89 for seven in the 35th.

All the St George’s top batsmen were back in the pavilion, Treadwell Gibbons the first to go when he top-edged a hook to a Malachi Jones bouncer and the leaping Greg Maybury held a catch on the long-leg boundary. Gibbons scored 19 off 18 balls and was just getting into a rhythm after hitting three fours and a six.

Mishael Paynter received his second leg-before decision of the match when he was second out for 20 as colt Kwasi James picked up his first wicket in Cup Match. Temiko Wilson departed next over, bowled by Maybury for 21.

Captain Macai Simmons tried to hit across the line to a James ball and was trapped leg-before — also for the second time in the match — as the slide began at 78 for four in the 25th over. Next over the prized wicket of Allan Douglas was taken by Stovell when Douglas shouldered arms to the second ball he faced and was bowled for one.

Detroy Smith completed a pair of ducks on his debut, this time facing just three balls to go with the first-ball dismissal he had on Thursday, both leg-before decisions.

St George’s had seven leg-before dismissals in the two innings, with Stovell leading the Somerset bowling in the second innings with four for 58. He finished with seven wickets in the match.

James, who shared the new ball with Stovell in the second innings, finished with two for 47.

The toss on Thursday morning proved to be a good one to win, with Somerset capitalising on a placid pitch and some slack bowling by St George’s to post 378 for nine in 873.2 overs. They had a flying start with colt Chare Smith going for 16 runs in the opening over.

After Zeko Burgess’s first over Somerset already had 27 runs on the board, with Chris Douglas on 19 before opening partner Terryn Fray had even faced a ball.

However, Fray eventually got in on the scoring, during the record opening stand of 153 in 136 minutes, which topped the 143 between Wendell Smith and Arnold Manders in 1991. Fray eventually got to fifty before Douglas, helping to knock Smith and Burgess out of the attack with 40 runs coming in the first five overs.

Fray brought up the Somerset 100 with a four through long-off and in the next ball reached his fifty with a four through mid-on. Douglas was still on 48 at the other end, but he brought up his half-century with a single in the 23rd over, with Fray already on 60. St George’s finally broke the stand in the 32nd over when Allan Douglas held a smart catch over his shoulder running away from the wicket at mid-off to dismiss Chris Douglas for 74. He hit nine fours and two sixes from 58 balls.

The runs kept coming in the early order as St George’s faced the prospect of a long day in the sun. The first four Somerset batsmen all reached fifties, including two — Fray and Stephen Outerbridge — who fell in the nineties, for 91 and 92. Fray hit 12 fours in 170 minutes at the crease before he was second out when the score was 187. Then, a stand of 94 between Tre Manders, who made 57, and Outerbridge took Somerset to 281 when two wickets went down, Manders and Stovell for a three-ball duck.

A declaration finally took St George’s out of their misery, although they did fight back in the afternoon session with Zeko Burgess and Onias Bascome taking six wickets between them from 12 overs each, going for 69 and 66 runs respectively. Allan Douglas chipped in with two for 76 from 20 overs after coming on as first change. St George’s used six bowlers by the seventeenth over, with four giving up more than 50 runs in their spells.

St George’s reached 58 for four after 20 overs by the close of the first day and were dismissed for 121 in 39.5 overs just before noon on day two, with Somerset captain Jordan DeSilva not hesitating to enforce the follow-on, with an innings victory very much on the cards.

Stovell claimed three for 21 from nine overs, Malachi Jones three for 30 from ten and DeSilva two for 25 from 6.4 overs as the St George’s batsmen struggled to build partnerships. Their overnight score of 58 for four included two “retired hurt” batsmen, with Gibbons going off with cramp and Allan Douglas a side strain.

Douglas came back yesterday morning to lead the batting with 29 before he was eighth out on 93. Gibbons was next high man with 16 from 42 balls, sixth out with just 70 runs on the board.

SCORECARD

Somerset: First Innings

C Douglas c Douglas b Burgess 74

T Fray b Burgess 91

T Manders b Onias Bascome 57

S Outerbridge b Burgess 92

D Stovell b Onias Bascome 0

S Bremar c Douglas b D Smith 9

M Jones lbw b Onias Bascome 1

†J Edness c and b Douglas 10

*J DeSilva c On Bascome b Douglas 18

G Maybury not out 1

Extras (b 10, lb 8, nb 7) 25

Total (9 wkts, 73.2 overs) 378

K James did not bat

Fall of wickets: 1-153, 2-187, 3-281, 4-281, 5-306, 6-314, 7-332, 8-370, 9-378.

Bowling: C Smith 10-0-55-0; Burgess 12.2-1-69-3; Douglas 20-1-76-2; Onias Bascome 12-1-66-3; Trott 5-0-32-0; D Smith 9-1-38-1; Simmons 5-0-24-0

St George’s: First Innings

T Gibbons c Jones b Stovell 16

M Paynter lbw b Jones 6

†T Wilson c Edness b Jones 4

Oronde Bascome b Maybury 4

*M Simmons lbw b Stovell 8

A Douglas c Maybury b DeSilva 29

D Smith lbw b Stovell 0

Onias Bascome c Outerbridge b Jones 15

C Trott c and b DeSilva 13

Z Burgess st Edness b DeSilva 12

C Smith not out 1

Extras (b 8, lb 3, nb 1, w 1) 13

Total (39.5 overs) 121

Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-21, 3-26, 4-53, 5-58, 6-70, 7-80, 8-93, 9-114.

Bowling: Jones 10-3-30-3; Maybury 12-2-28-1; James 2-1-6-0; DeSilva 6.4-1-25-3; Stovell 9-3-21-3.

Second Innings (following on)

T Gibbons c Maybury b Jones 19

M Paynter lbw b James 20

†T Wilson b Maybury 21

Oronde Bascome c DeSilva b Jones 6

*M Simmons lbw b James 12

A Douglas b Stovell 1

D Smith lbw b Stovell 0

Onias Bascome lbw b Stovell 101

C Trott c DeSilva b Douglas 7

Z Burgess b Stovell 25

C Smith not out 0

Extras (b 5, lb 1, nb 4, w 1) 11

Total (71.1 overs) 223

Fall of wickets: 1-28, 2-64, 3-64, 4-78, 5-79, 6-79, 7-89, 8-125, 9-222.

Bowling: James 12-3-47-2; Stovell 22.1-8-58-4; Jones 14-4-20-2; Maybury 13-3-38-1; DeSilva 5-3-15-0; C Douglas 5-0-39-1.

Umpires: E Carrington and M Best.

Third umpire: O Andrade.

Match referee: S Douglas.

Interval notes

Day one

Lunch: Somerset 167-1 (36 overs)

Tea: Somerset 369-7 (70 overs)

Close of play: St George’s 58-4 (39.5 overs)

Day two

Lunch: St George’s 34-1 (8 overs)

Tea: St George’s 103-7 (41 overs)

UPDATE: this article has been amended to correct that it was Grey Maybury who bowled Temiko Wilson in the second innings, and not Malachi Jones