Wellington Oval (St David’s won toss): St David’s beat Cleveland by seven wickets

St David’s made short work of Cleveland to record their second win in the league yesterday, dismissing their opponents for just 87 and then passing the revised target following a long rain delay with the loss of three wickets.

The defending champions spent most of the afternoon in the clubhouse nervously waiting for the weather to clear after a heavy downpour came just after they dismissed Cleveland in 35.5 overs at 1.25pm and then spent the next three and a half hours waiting for the match to restart. The target was adjusted to 50 off 28 overs which they reached in just 11.4 overs though Cleveland offered some resistance in taking three wickets.

“To knock a team down for 87 and have the weather not clear up would have been terrible for us,” said Wendell Smith,.

“I thought the groundsman, Calvin Richardson, did a good job keeping the wicket relatively dry, and it was a good strip.

“The toss did end up being important, obviously only having to chase 50 runs. I was hoping we would get some batting points out of this game but Cleveland, to their credit, made us work hard for the 50 runs.

“They knocked down our top three bats, Sammy [Robinson], OJ [Pitcher] and Fiqre [Crockwell], so credit to them for working hard and not throwing in the towel.

“Our fielding, I thought, was very good today, we took some good catches and it is pleasing to see we got that rectified, but we still have a few technical things we need to work on.”

Cleveland were in early trouble when Steven Douglas Jr was dismissed on the third ball of the first over from George O’Brien. Del Hollis, who shared the new ball, had a good supporting spell as he finished with one for 22, before Rudell Pitcher and Delyone Borden shared seven wickets between them as Cleveland recovered from 12 for two to 43 for three before they slumped again to 68 for eight.

Jason Anderson led the Cleveland batting with 28 before he was trapped lbw by Pitcher. Anderson and Courtney Trott added 31 for the third wicket in the team’s biggest stand before Trott departed for ten, the only other batsman in double figures. Borden claimed four for 18 off 7.5 overs and Pitcher three for 17 from nine overs with three maidens.

St David’s, too, lost their first wicket in the first over when Robinson was trapped lbw by Damali Bell on the fourth ball.

Crockwell departed on 15 to a good catch at extra cover by Tamauri Tucker, before captain OJ Pitcher went for 22 after slicing a chance to Shakai Darrell at cover when the score was 32.

Angelo Cannonier and Ajaun Lamb crossed the score to seal the comfortable win with St David’s batting for 50 minutes. Dennis Musson, the Cleveland captain, claimed two for five from four overs.