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Cup win just the beginning of a big season, says Dill

Baileys Bay tailender Ryan Steede edges one over the slip cordon during Sunday’s Belco Cup final at Lords. Bay won the match by 29 runs(Photo by Mark Tatem)

Bailey’s Bay stalwart Cal (Patches) Dill hopes his club’s maiden Belco Cup triumph over Eastern Counties rivals St David’s at the weekend is the beginning of bigger and better things to come.Bay prevailed over the Islanders by 29 runs in a low-scoring affair at Lords on Sunday to etch their name on the coveted trophy for the first time since Belco became title sponsors of the competition in 2003.Prior to then, Bay’s last triumph in the competition arrived in 1997 when it was then referred to as the Camel Cup. On that occasion Bay defeated St George’s by four-wickets at Lords.Given all the hard work Bay’s players have put in over the past several months, Dill said the Eastern Counties champions thoroughly deserved their hard-fought win against St David’s.“It was a great feeling to win because of all the hard work we have put in pre-season right up to now,” he said. “That was a deserving win for us and showed again that hard work pays off.”Bay pulled off the unlikeliest of wins defending a meagre total of 147 on a big field.Dill said the strategy defending a low total was to keep the pressure on the Islanders batsmen from the very first delivery of the innings.“The key for us was to get rid of their top order as quickly as possible,” he added. “When Clay (Smith) and OJ (Pitcher) went to the wicket we knew we had to work extra hard to get one of them and I have to praise 14-year-old Azende Furbert who took possibly the match-winning catch on the long on boundary to dismiss OJ.”Even after failing to reach 150, Dill said he and his team-mates still backed themselves to win.“We were upbeat because we know we are one of the best fielding teams in Bermuda,” he said. “We also knew that we had our runs and they still had to get theirs.“We knew we had to bowl in the right areas to win the match and that’s exactly what we done.”Seamer Kyle Hodsoll and off-spinner Rodney Trott shared seven wickets between them, with the former claiming the lion’s share of scalps.Dill believes over confidence chasing a low target might have led to St David’s’ downfall.“I think they figured they had won the match with the batting line-up they have which is strong,” he said. “They have the likes of OJ, Chris Foggo, Delyone Borden and Clay Smith so they probably figured they would coast to 147 but didn’t realise we had a bunch of war veterans ready to go to war.”After losing the toss and being sent into bat, Bay’s batsmen struggled to come to grips with a two-paced batting track, said Dill.“Early in the morning the ball was coming onto the bat but then it started sticking to the pitch,” he said. “But it was still a very good pitch to bat on.“We just struggled in the beginning and didn’t rotate the strike as much as we should have. But other than that as a team on the whole we performed the way we have been for a long time.”Dill reckoned the hard-fought win will have instilled even more confidence in a team yet to be beaten so far this season.“We now believe that we are one of the best teams in Bermuda and if you look back at our record I think we are on a 14 -game win streak,” he said. “That win against St David’s was definitely a big statement to make because I consider us to be the best two teams in Bermuda at the moment.”