Bailey’s Bay retained their Premier Division Twenty20 title, but not without a scare after James Celestine’s dashing 38 late in the Southampton Rangers innings threatened to swing the match late in the afternoon.

Celestine, playing his first match of the season for Rangers, smashed 38 before hitting his off drive straight to Terryn Fray at long-off who held a good catch in the seventh over.

Celestine had brought up the 100 for Rangers the previous ball with a six off Dennico Hollis and his departure at 101 for seven spelled the end of Southampton’s hopes of reclaiming the trophy they lost to Bay last season. Bay added the trophy to the Belco Cup they won back in May.

“It was a good victory for us, winning the first cup of the season and now the [second] last cup of the season,” said Irving Romaine, the Bay coach. “It was a steady season for us, only two losses so it’s promising. And we’re a young team so we can only go from strength to strength with this.

“We got two trophies out of the season, the Eastern Counties was a tame draw, but we retained the T20.”

With three overs remaining, Rangers did not have batsmen in their tail-end capable of scoring 41 runs in the last three overs to pull off the victory.

Their other big threat, captain Janeiro Tucker, departed early and cheaply after promoting himself to No 3 at the fall of Kwame Tucker on the fourth delivery of the first over of the innings.

Kyle Hodsoll added a second wicket in his next over when he also had Curtis Jackson caught behind to make it eight for two.

Rangers continued wobbling with further wickets going down in the sixth, eighth and ninth overs as Lateef Trott picked up the key wicket of Tucker in his first over after a skied catch to Stephen Outerbridge who took a good catch running towards the boundary at extra cover.

Trott then claimed Brangman in his next over before captain Rodney Trott trapped Raynor lbw, ironically the next delivery after Celestine turned him down for a single. Jason Wade’s departure in the twelfth over made it 55 for six and much hinged on Celestine, a dangerous player in such conditions.

Celestine and Hasan Durham put on 46 for the seventh wicket in five overs but once Celestine departed the match ended soon after with the last three wickets going down for just four runs.

Kyle Hodsoll claimed three for ten off his four overs — fittingly coming back to claim the last wicket of Kyle Lightbourne to seal the win — while Lateef Trott took two for 13 and Nyhrobi Carmichael two for 26 after claiming the scalps of Durham and Kevin Tucker in the eighteenth over. Bay looked set to post an even bigger total than their 141 for eight, after Terryn Fray and Tre Manders put on 45 for the first wicket in six overs.

Fray’s departure in the ninth over enabled Rangers to regroup as the teams were forced to leave the field at the fall of the second wicket by a heavy shower.

However, upon resumption a half-hour later, Stephen Outerbridge and Derrick Brangman built on the foundation laid by Fray and Manders, adding 44 in just three overs to bring up the 100 in the fifteenth over when Brangman departed for 20. Outerbridge was next out on 130 for 38.

Dennico Hollis was run out in the same over without facing a ball as Rangers seized the momentum to pick up the last five Bay wickets for just 21 runs.

Jason Wade finished with three for 32 and spinner Vernon Eve three for 35. Janeiro Tucker went for just 17 runs, taking the wicket of Rodney Trott in his first over.

“A total of 140 in Bermuda T20 cricket is a good score but I thought we were on course to get at least,” Trott said.

“Runs on the board is always a challenge for a team batting second. They have a couple of explosive batsmen and once we got them out I was confident we were going to keep them under 140.

“Celestine gave a couple of chances and he’s the kind of guy who if he hits a couple of boundaries it gives him confidence. But batsmen like that always end up giving you a chance and we took it.”