St David’s booked their place in the semi-finals of the Lindo’s Twenty20 on the back of a superbly paced team batting performance against Flatts.

Justin Pitcher laid the foundation with a neat half-century, with powerful cameos from George O’Brien and Loren Marshall providing the acceleration as the Islanders posted a daunting 172.

Flatts, recently crowned First Division winners, were never seriously in contention after that, although their total of 111 was far from a disgrace against the Premier Division champions, and Reggie Baker’s unbeaten 52 was the highest individual score of the day at Lord’s.

Predictably tight bowling from the St David’s front line of O’Brien, Del Hollis, Pitcher and Marshall ensured that the required run-rate of more than eight an over was never a realistic possibility.

St David’s, the hot favourites for this group A decider, got off to a sticky start when OJ Pitcher, the captain, was caught and bowled by Dornielle Farrel for just one.

McLaren Lowe and Justin Pitcher then dug in for a partnership of 47, until Lowe was stumped by Cofield Robinson off Barry DeCouto Jr for 17.

Kevin Hurdle was dropped first ball by Chris Dailey off DeCouto, and then appeared set to make him pay by hammering his next ball for six; however to Flatts’ great relief, DeCouto bowled their former star with his next ball.

O’Brien then upped the tempo with a typically attacking innings, combining some lusty blows with some swinging and missing to grab 36 from 23 balls, including three sixes and two fours.

His departure, caught on the boundary by Kijuan Franks off Dailey, merely paved the way for an equally aggressive display from Marshall, who smashed 36 from only 15 balls, including three sixes and three fours.

Pitcher, meanwhile, was ticking along efficiently, eventually bringing up his fifty with an eye-catching flick down the leg side; his 51 came from 49 balls.

Farrel was by far the tightest of the Flatts bowlers, conceding just 15 from his four overs, while Franks earned three wickets with an energetic effort.

Anchored by Baker’s excellent knock from 49 balls, Flatts refused to let St David’s have it all their own way with a dogged batting display.

They survived the first eight overs from O’Brien and Hollis for the loss of only two wickets, but then lost two more in the first over from Justin Pitcher.

Baker received solid support from Troy Bean, but, with boundaries hard to come by, the required run-rate climbed rapidly; with seven overs remaining Flatts had six wickets in hand but still needed more than 100 runs at 15 runs per over.

A bizarre over of mixed fortunes from Ricky Foggo livened proceedings near the end: he was hit for two huge sixes and bowled three wides, but also claimed the wickets of Logan Phillips and Farrel. In that over, as for the match as a whole, Flatts may have wagged their tail, but it was St David’s who had the last laugh.