Wellington Oval(Willow Cuts won toss): St George’s beat Willow Cuts by eight wickets

St George’s landed the Twenty20 Premier Division title yesterday after the second of two wins on the weekend that catapulted them over longtime leaders Southampton Rangers and Somerset.

Inspired by the explosive hitting of Allan Douglas Jr, not only did St George’s make up six points on Rangers but they also significantly overhauled both they and an impressive Somerset set-up on net run-rate heading into the weekend — making their task pretty academic with no need for the calculators.

Just win!

The first win was on Saturday against Rangers, the defending champions, in a rain-affected make-up match from July. Twenty-four hours later, they scored another impressive victory after restricting bottom team Willow Cuts to 130 for six in their 20 overs and then reaching the target with 28 balls to spare.

Douglas and Oronde Bascome, their batting heroes in the past few games, were dismissed inside the first four overs after both played on to balls from Cuts captain Kwasi James in successive overs.

However, there would be no further success for the visiting bowlers as captain Onias Bascome and veteran Treadwell Gibbons Jr carried the score from 26 for two to 132, with Bascome smashing a six off Dwight Basden over square leg to complete the victory.

Bascome was high man with 58 not out from 47 balls, hitting six sixes and two fours, while Gibbons was 45 not out off 33 balls, with four fours and two sixes.

“It feels good, the coach told me to go out there and bring it home today and play the captain’s role,” said Onias Bascome, whose team were not so long ago contemplating relegation rather than lifting silverware.

“Hats off to Kwasi James and Micah Simons, who were their two top bowlers. Once we got past them, I knew we had a very strong chance of winning the game.”

Gibbons’s calm head was just what the new champions needed as Cuts sought a breakthrough.

“Treddie has done that very well throughout the season, supporting the likes of Allan and Oronde,” the captain said.

“He knows his role and did it to a T today, supporting me and staying there to the end with me. Oronde and Allan put us in this position, although it didn’t work for them today.

“We have a deep batting line-up and, as the captain, I took it upon myself to end the game.”

Steven Douglas, the Bermuda Cricket Board’s cricket committee chairman, was on hand to present the trophy to the new champions, who won five games on the trot.

James, who shared the new ball with Simons for Cuts, claimed two for 25 off his four overs, as Bascome and Gibbons hardly looked bothered once they settled in.

Even the two wickets that fell had a slice of bad luck, Oronde Bascome driving against his pad and the ball rebounding to hit his wicket. Two overs later, Douglas got a bottom edge to an attempted square cut, which deflected on to his stumps.

Cuts put on 38 for the first wicket in 4.5 overs through James and Ras Solomon Burrows, most of them extras. However, they quickly slumped to 79 for five in the space of eight overs before a sixth-wicket stand of 50 between Antonio Darrell and Dean Stephens took them to 129 when the latter was out for 29 having hit three fours and two sixes.

Darrell, who came in at No 4, was high man with 34 not out from 37 balls with three fours and a six.

St George’s spinner Nzari Paynter took two for 13 off three overs and Detroy Smith claimed two for 29 from four overs. Macai Simmons, in his second match back from a broken hand, claimed one for ten from two overs while Isaiah Greaves took one for 12.

SCORECARD

Willow Cuts

*K James c Gibbons b Smith 9

S Burrows b Smith 11

S Raynor c Darrell b Paynter 5

A Darrell not out 34

†S Bean c Greaves b Paynter 13

R Simmons lbw b Greaves 1

D Stephens c Gibbons b Simmons 29

D Basden not out 0

Extras (b 4, lb 1, nb 1, w 22) 28

Total (6 wkts, 20 overs) 130

B Spencer, M Simons and K Williams did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-38, 2-44, 3-50, 4-78, 5-79, 6-129.

Bowling: Darrell 2-0-13-0; Gibbons 3-0-19-0; Smith 4-0-29-2; Paynter 3-1-13-2; Greaves 2-1-12-1; Douglas 2-0-19-0; Onias Bascome 2--0-10-0; Simmons 2-0-10-1.

St George’s

A Douglas Jr b James 10

Oronde Bascome b James 6

Onias Bascome not out 58

T Gibbons Jr not out 45

Extras (b 7, nb 1, w 5) 13

Total (2 wkts, 15.2 overs) 132

†T Wilson, M Simmons, D Smith, J Darrell, I Greaves, N Paynter and Oyinde Bascome did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-21, 2-26.

Bowling: Simons 4-1-20-0; James 4-0-25-2; Stevens 2-0-15-0; Darrell 2-0-21-0; Raynor 1-0-17-0; Basden 1.2-0-25-0; Burrows 1-0-2-0.

Umpires: A Knight and S Caines.