Southampton Rangers 198

St.George's 196

Janeiro Tucker produced a man-of-the-match performance as Southampton Rangers wrote their names into the history books with a nailbiting two-run win over St. George's in the Belco Cup final yesterday.

Never before have a side won the competition four times in a row. It was their fifth win in the history of the annual tournament, and means that only St .George's have won it as many times.

The manner of their victory was a fitting way for the competition to end this year, two unfancied teams producing one of the best finals that has ever been seen.

In the end, Rangers triumphed through sheer determination and force of personality, but it should take nothing away from their defeated opponents.

Two weeks' ago any suggestion that St. George's might make the final of the Belco Cup, much less win it, would have been met with howls of derision.

A side in crisis, the resignation of skipper Ryan Steede and the humiliation at the hands of fierce rivals St. David's the following week, marked a new low in the club's history.

Whatever was said behind closed doors in the time since should be written down and kept for posterity, for it may well have marked a significant turning point in the team's season.

In the past, failing to win the cup would have been a big disappointment. That they failed yesterday was still disappointing, but should be measured against the sense of pride the team should feel for putting themselves in a position to do so.

They knocked out St David's to reach the final, and they didn't just scrape past them, they won comfortably. And then yesterday they came within a whisker of pulling off an unlikely victory in a competition that should be re-named the Southampton Rangers Cup.

It seems that no matter what happens, Rangers' name is on the trophy.

They only narrowly managed to make it into the semi-finals at the end of last season, and then with a number of high profile departures during the transfer window were written off as no-hopers this time around.

But this is their competition, one they have dominated for the last four years.

Yesterday's succcess means that the Belco Cup will now take up permanent residence in Southampton. Next year there will be a new cup, whether there will be new winners is certainly open to doubt.

Tucker has become synonymous with Rangers' success in this competition, but yesterday's triumph was not his alone, it as a triumph for a club that no-one expected to be anything other than average this year.

"It's incredible," said Tucker. "It just goes to show that you have to play right down to the wire. Right at the end, even when it looked like we might lose, I just told the guys to keep going. The game is about fighting to the end, and that's what we did.

"I think this win has to be the most satisfying of the four. It's a new bunch of guys, and a lot of them have never experienced this before, haven't been to the cup final, and for me, watching them soak up the atmosphere after achieving this . . . I don't think you can beat it.

"People said that we might struggle this year, but I told the guys, cricket is all about what happens on the field. We have just concentrated on that, kept fighting and I couldn't be happier for them."

Defeat was especially hard on St George's who for most of yesterday's game looked like pulling of a fairytale victory.

Some tight bowling, helped by some stunning fielding saw them reduce Rangers to 59 for three, and with Orande Bascome making imaginative use of his bowlers they held the upper hand during the opening exchanges.

Tucker, though, had other ideas and for a while he and Keith Wainwright looked like they might take the game away from St George's. They put on 65 for the fourth wicket before Tucker then threw his wicket away chasing a short, wide ball from Kyle Hudson, and top-edged it to Machai Simmons at third man.

From 124 for four, Rangers collapsed to 171 for nine, and St George's really should have closed out the innings there and then.

Tail-enders Ryan Belboda and Kerry Tucker had other ideas, however, and put on a valuable 27 runs for the final wicket.

Chasing 199 to win, St. George's received plenty of help from the Rangers bowlers in the opening overs of their reply. Of the first 32 runs to be scored, 19 were extras, 18 of those wides.

Rangers, though, haven't won this competition four times by being pushovers and they fought back to reduce St. George's to 129 for seven.

Their opponents have had a new lease of life, however, and Herbie Bascome and Rudell Pitcher took them to within 12 runs of a stunning win.

Herbie smashed 44 off just 52 balls but he holed out to Dion Stovell on the deep cover boundary and when Pitcher (21) followed with just six runs needed the tension that had been building all day reached an almost unbearable level.

The hero as it turned out wasn't Tucker, or Malachai Jones, but Jason Wade.

Having taken Bascome's wicket, he then kept his nerve and bowled Greg Foggo to create history and send Rangers' supporters into ecstacy.