Lord’s, St David’s (St George’s won toss): St George’s beat St David’s by 65 runs

St George’s cruised to a comfortable victory over St David’s in this east end derby to complete the perfect start to their Athene T20 Premier Division title defence.

St George’s overcame an early setback and capitalised on some poor fielding to post 155 for four after electing to take first strike on an excellent track.

Their bowlers then pitched the ball in all the right areas, while their fielders held onto their catches, to keep a steady procession of batsmen going to and from the pavilion before St David’s were dismissed for 90 in 18.5 overs.

After all and was said and done in the middle, St George’s coach Clay Smith expressed his delight over his team’s solid all-round display.

“I thought all in all we had a very good team performance,” he said.

“We went out there with a gameplan to build an innings for the first ten overs and then go hard the last ten and I think it worked to perfection to some degree.

“Our bowlers right now are bowling really well and Zeko [Burgess] and Shakai [Darrell] are always giving us a good start.

“Charles [Trott], Macai [Simmons] and Nzari [Paynter], these guys have been bowling well for us all year as a unit.

“I think what we did well today more than any other time is we held on to our catches, and I told them from the start if we hold on to our catches we win this game, and that’s what happened.

“We fielded really well, got two run outs and Sinclair [Smith] got a stumping. He is a class act as a wicketkeeper so that really helped us.”

Smith was also pleased to see his team achieve back-to-back wins during the opening weekend of the T20 campaign to get their bid for a third straight title off to a flying start.

“Definitely could not have asked for a better weekend and against two tough opponents,” he added.

“We have one more T20 and then we have to really switch on to Cup Match. It’s going to be a little bit difficult as we haven’t played too much long ball cricket, but the good thing is a winning momentum should help us going into what should be a difficult classic.”

St George’s got their innings off to a shaky start after Macai Simmons was caught behind off the first delivery of the match.

St David’s then made further inroads when Simmons’s opening partner, Paynter, was grabbed in the covers.

Jonté Smith and captain Onias Bascome added 33 for the third wicket to steady the ship before the former was bowled playing back to a fuller-length ball.

St David’s appeared to have matters under control with St George’s 68 for three with eight overs remaining in their innings. However, Bascome and his fellow all-rounder cut loose with some aggressive strokeplay and added a valuable 69 that turned the tide and powered the visitors to a challenging total.

Bascome led the way with a responsible and polished 53, which included three sixes and two fours.

The St George’s captain picked the gaps with some clean hitting and brought up his fifty off 39 balls with a delicate guide down to third man and crossing for a comfortable single.

“The skipper came in and played admirably,” Smith said.

“He just took his time, got himself in and then as time went on he just executed and hit the ball clean. He played very well, a skipper’s innings.”

Trott (36), Smith (35) and Paynter (11) were the remaining St George’s batsmen in double figures.

Experienced seamer George O’Brien (two for 21) was the most successful bowler for a St David’s side that put down several catches, including off Bascome at square leg.

With an asking rate of over seven runs per over, St David’s got off to a horrible start as off spinner Darrell and seamer Burgess made early inroads with the new ball to force them on to the back foot.

Burgess made the initial breakthrough when Bascome took an excellent low catch at mid-on to remove OJ Pitcher.

Darrell kept the pressure on from his end as he had Aaron Paynter brilliantly stumped down the leg side by wicketkeeper Smith, who then gloved a faint edge off the bat of Justin Pitcher to leave the hosts wobbling at 32 for three.

George O’Brien looked comfortable after playing himself in but was run out attempting a risky single and the wheels then completely fell off the wagon for St David’s after Mikkail Crockwell was caught at mid-off as their remaining five wickets fell for 37 runs in the space of six overs.

Darrell (two for 27) was the pick of the St George’s bowling, with Justin Pitcher (17), Isaiah O’Brien (15) and Derrick Brangman (14) the only St David’s batsmen offering any real resistance.