Somerset coach Jeff Richardson feels his team outclassed rivals St George’s in every department during last week’s Cup Match at Wellington Oval and would have won the match hands down had considerable time not been lost to rain and other interruptions.“Anyone who understands or follows the game of cricket knows that St George’s were saved by the rain, it’s as simple as that,” he declared. “I hear people talking about they hung for the draw but after the time we lost to the rain it was always going to be a draw. I don’t think they did anything spectacular by avoiding a defeat, the weather saved them from defeat.”During the post game ceremony St George’s president Neil Paynter praised his players for salvaging a draw to keep the East Ender’s 32-year unbeaten streak at Wellington Oval intact.Richardson said he found Paynter’s remarks amusing.“He has every right to feel the way he feels and he had to put a positive spin on it which made me smile,” he added. “But what he should have done was thanked the lord above for the rain that they got because quite frankly had it not rained the result was only going to go one way — Somerset’s!”Despite thrashing St Georges by ten wickets last year and dominating them again this year before rain intervened, Richardson feels that St George’s haven’t given his team the respect they are due as champions.“Rodney Trott (St George’s vice-captain) gave some credit to our batsmen but not one of them have admitted that they were outplayed by a better team,” he said. “We dominated the match in its entirety and the only thing that overcame us was the weather.”Richardson said his team’s plan was to ‘bat St George’s out of the match” in the first innings.“Our initial plan was to bat them out of the match in the first innings so they knew that they couldn’t win and the pressure is on them to try and avoid a defeat by getting a draw,” he added. “Our objective was to score a big total in decent time to allow us enough time to bowl them out twice.”Somerset gained an advantage after winning the toss and going to bat first on a wicket that was expected to deliver a result.“The plan from the start was to bat once on a wicket that was promised to give a result, so we anticipated it deteriorating but it didn’t quite deteriorate as promised,” Richardson said. “I knew for a fact had St George’s won the toss, with the promise from the groundsman that the wicket was going to be a result wicket, that they didn’t want to be batting fourth on it, so we figured why should we bat fourth on it. The better part of the wicket was going to be on the first day, so we figured we would bat on it first.”Led by centuries from Janeiro Tucker (104 not out) and Tre Manders (109), Somerset piled up 370 for six declared in the first innings.Richardson, uncle of Somerset spinner Jacobi Robinson, was delighted to see Manders achieve a maiden Cup Match century.“There were a number of highlights in Cup Match but the highlight for me was Tre Manders,” he said. “He’s unflappable and nothing bothers him. He has the same demeanour no matter what, you can’t look at him and see that he’s worried, under stress or anything.”