Wellington Oval (Southampton won toss): Southampton beat Cleveland by four wickets

Dion Stovell smashed a quick-fire half-century to help Southampton Rangers to a comfortable victory over Cleveland County in a rain-affected match at Wellington Oval.

Stovell, the Rangers captain, played a heavy-hitting innings, littered with sixes and boundaries, to help the visiting side return to winning ways after their shock defeat against Somerset Cricket Club in their previous Premier Division match.

Chasing a revised total of 137 off 40 overs, Stovell, the Bermuda batsman, put on 47 runs for the fourth wicket with Janeiro Tucker to firmly put to bed any lofty ideas that Cleveland had of causing another upset.

With Rangers at 58 for three, Cleveland could have been forgiven for believing they had a slight chance of pulling off an unlikely win, but in truth their meagre total of 171 off 48.2 overs was never realistically going to be enough deny Rangers’ power-packed batting line-up.

That Cleveland were afforded to post as many runs as they did had much to do with Rangers’ lack of killer instinct with the ball as it did the impressive half-century from Adrian Burrows, who at least gave side’s total an air of respectability.

At one stage, the home side had been reeling at 76 for five before Burrows steadied the ship along with Shaki Darrell who added 28 runs in the pair’s 70-run sixth-wicket partnership.

Stovell admitted that his side had been guilty of letting Cleveland off the hook although he praised the stubbornness of Burrows’s innings. Ryan Belboda was the pick of the Rangers bowlers, claiming four for 38.

“We started off the well but we allowed [Cleveland] to score more runs than they should have,” said Stovell, who won the toss.

“I thought Adrian and Shaki put on a good partnership in the middle, but I was pleased with the way we finished them at the death.

“[A total of] 176 should never really cause us too much trouble as our batting is pretty deep.”

In fairness to Cleveland they did cause Rangers a few early flutters, especially left-arm seam bowler Damali Bell, who bowled better than his figures of one for 29 suggested.

But in truth, Cleveland were never going to have sufficient potency in their bowling attack to cause Rangers too many concerns, with Stovell disappointed that his side had allowed their opponent’s to claim as many six wickets.

“To be honest, losing six wickets was kind of depressing,” said Stovell, who was dropped by Randy Bean off the bowling of Darrell shortly before his half-century.

“Other than that, this was a good victory for us. Obviously we could always improve and we’ve had some ups and downs this season, especially losing to Somerset last weekend.”

Rangers reached their required total off 23.1 overs.