Southampton Oval (Southampton Rangers won toss): Southampton Rangers beat Willow Cuts by 83 runs

First Division champions Southampton Rangers remain in the hunt for a T20 double after easily winning their Knockout Cup semi-final against Willow Cuts.

Rangers, who were presented with the T20 First Division league trophy by BCB President Lloyd Smith at the end of the match, thrilled their captain Dalin Richardson as they extended their unbeaten run.

“We have plenty of goals for the season and this is just one of them,” Richardson said.

“We will take one game at a time and try to accomplish all our goals. This is just a step in that direction.”

A star-studded Rangers outfit containing four Cup Match players, including two former captains in Oronde Bascome (St George’s) and Jordan DeSilva (Somerset), proved too strong for their opponents, capturing six wickets for five runs as Cuts made just 71 runs in response to Rangers’s 154 for eight

Winning the toss and electing to bat, Rangers were in a spot of bother at 21 for two after Kwasi James bowled Dion Stovell for nine in the third over, with his replacement Dante Wellman joining him in the pavilion only eight runs later when he was bowled by Rico Swan.

Captain Dalin Richardson then arrived to partner Bascome and the two brought some stability to the innings, carrying the score to 49 for two at the end of the six-over power play.

Bascome, on 24, was given a life when he was dropped on the square leg boundary by Jordan Hill with the score at 55. The partnership then took the total to 82 for two at the halfway stage, with Richardson scoring 15 of the 16 runs in the tenth over, including two pulled sixes, during Ras Solomon Burrows’s only over .

The game was held up for half an hour after a collision between Richardson and Cuts wicketkeeper Shaquille Bean, who lay motionless in the centre of the pitch for a few minutes. An ambulance arrived to take the Cuts player to hospital in a neck brace as a precautionary measure.

Chakote Wainwright would finally break up the 71 run, third-wicket partnership with the very first ball after the delay when Richardson hit a soft return catch to him to leave the score at 92 for three.

Jordan DeSilva joined Bascome and the two put on 50 runs for the fourth wicket before Wysdem Symonds took a one-handed catch off the former’s firm drive to dismiss him for 22 with the score at 142.

Bascome, who was dropped by Hill again on 45, hung around to carry the score to 152 before he was run out on the first ball of the nineteenth over for 65. Rangers then lost two further wickets in the over to finish on 154 for eight. James was the pick of the Cuts bowlers claiming three wickets for 23 runs from his four overs.

Cuts opened with veteran Dwight Basden and captain Burrows needing 7.75 runs per over but the captain did not hang around too long as he was bowled by Stovell in the second over.

Rangers’ bowlers held the upper hand as Cuts continued to struggle, reaching only 51 for one midway through their innings. Basden and James put on a team-high 40 runs for the second wicket to bring some respectability to the score.

But once Basden skied one to the long off boundary, where he was caught by Dante Wellman off the bowling of Darrien Gibbons for 33, wickets began to fall regularly.

James provided the only resistance but he fell for 16 after stepping down the crease and going for a big hit before missing the ball completely to give wicketkeeper Nacori Smith an easy stumping off the bowling off Swayne Campbell. Dionte Darrell came and went in the same over, trapped lbw two balls later for nought, to leave Cuts struggling at 66 for four with all recognised batters back in the pavilion.

The injured Bean returned and attempted to make his way to the crease but was denied by umpire Oscar Andrade as he had left the field as part of concussion protocol and was replaced by a fielder who was eligible to bowl and bat, therefore making Bean ineligible to take part any further.

With the score at 66 for four, Gibbons and Campbell ran riot through the remaining Cuts batters to dismiss them for 71. Gibbons claimed five wickets for only four runs and was ably supported by Campbell, who claimed four wickets for 13 runs.