Social Club 173

Southampton Rangers 174-3

Previously unbeaten Social Club turned up at Southampton Oval yesterday looking for respect.

What they received instead was a seven-wicket thrashing as defending league champions Southampton Rangers romped to a comfortable triumph in their own back yard.

For the second straight weekend St.George?s Cup Match hopeful Keith Wainwright and Andrew Raynor carried the home team to victory via an unbroken partnership.

After teenage all-rounder Malachi Jones had ripped through the visitors? middle order to finish with superb figures of four for 21 off ten overs including two maidens, the stage was set for Wainwright and Raynor to polish off the required runs and stop Social Club dead in their tracks.

Wainwright, who batted comfortably throughout his innings, featured in three half-century partnerships that kept Rangers firmly on course for victory.

First he put on 64 runs in 12 overs for the first wicket with Curtis Jackson (25) before adding 51 with Dion Stovell (20) for the second wicket and another 52 runs during an unbroken fourth wicket stand with Raynor (19 not out).

Wainwright scored 79 runs off 101 balls and hit 14 boundaries, including the match-winning four at 5.25 p.m. that just barely eluded the outstretched hands of Kenny Phillip fielding in the covers.

Rangers were never really troubled in their reply, despite losing three wickets in the space of 58 runs and 66 balls.

After racing to 64 without loss, Jackson became the first Southampton wicket to fall when he was caught on the long off boundary attempting to loft seamer Jeffrey Tyrell out of the park.

Jackson faced 34 balls and struck three fours and a six.

Stovell and Wainwright then added another 51 runs in 12 overs before the former, who faced 27 balls and hit three fours, was trapped leg before on the very first ball he faced after receiving the ?magic? spray to his right leg.

Waiwnright was then joined by an aggressive Malachi Jones who immediately got off the mark with a straight driven six.

However, the partnership lasted only three balls as Jones was given out to catch in the slips that appeared to take a hop before nestling in the hands of Detroy Smith.

Yet any hopes of a Social Club upset were quickly dashed as Wainwright and Raynor put up the shutters and produced the second biggest stand of the match in ten overs that earned Rangers their sixth win of the season, and sole possession of first place in the standings.

Raynor hit three fours and a beautifully swept six backward of square leg during his unbeaten 24-ball knock.

Seamers Tyrell, Kenneth Darrell and Jaymo Durham each claimed one wicket apiece for a combined 133 runs.

Earlier, Social Club never really recovered from an early collapse to go on to a big score batting on a baked pitch.

At one stage the visitors were in all sorts of trouble at 76 for five after 25 overs.

Thanks to timely knocks of 45 and 36 from middle order bats Jahmiko Marshall and Nakia Smith, Social Club managed to post a respectable total.

Marshall scored his runs off 69 balls and hit four fours and two sixes while Smith faced 47 balls and struck one four and three sixes.

Dwayne (Streaker) Adams (24) and Winston Simmons (12) were the only other Social Club bats managing double figures.

Adams stroked two fours and a six off 45 balls batting at number three.

Malachi Jones was by far Rangers? most successful bowler, backed up by Ryan Belboda and skipper Janeiro Tucker who claimed two for 23 and two for 35 respectively.