Wellington Oval (St. George’s won toss): St. George’s beat Somerset by 136 runs

Jonté Smith hit a century as St George’s returned to winning ways with a mauling of understrength Cup Match rivals Somerset on Sunday.

Smith, who entered the fray at No 3 and smashed 107 off 89 balls, helped his team to the biggest total of the 50 overs season so far as St George’s reached 384 for five at the end of their 50 overs. In reply, Somerset, who were without in-form batter Alex Dore and former captain Jordan DeSilva, could manage only 248 for seven.

It was a welcome return to form for Smith, who felt like he had been struggling in the first few weeks of the season.

“I was looking to bat as long as I could,” Smith said.

“I haven’t scored too many runs this season so I started off batting patiently, but once I got myself in, I was looking to put away the bad balls to give myself a big score.”

Smith came to the crease after Nzari Paynter and Oronde Bascome had put on 71 for the opening wicket before the former was dismissed off the bowling of Greg Maybury.

After Oronde Bascome had fallen for 56 with the score at 114 for two, St George’s captain Onais Bascome joined Smith in the middle and the runs started to flow with the pair displaying all their shots to put on 113 runs for the third wicket before Bascome was given out lbw by umpire Roger Dill after making 57.

Such was the East Enders dominance over the opposition’s bowling - Smith was particularly brutal against youngster Keanu Coddington, smashing 26 off his only over followed by hammering Azar Morrissey’s fourth over for 27 runs - that each of the top six batters made it to at least 40.

Smith brought up his century with a flick off his pads to the square-leg boundary for four but soon fell victim going for another big hit and was caught by Jermal Proctor on the boundary off the bowling of Dominic Sabir.

With a swashbuckling contribution of 43, from 17 balls, from Zeko Burgess, St George’s continued to rack up the run and finished just 16 runs short of 400.

Dominic Sabir was the pick of the Somerset bowlers with two wickets for 44 runs. Captain Alje Richardson also picked up two wickets for 58 but did not help his cause as he gave up 12 of the 22 wides.

Set a mammoth total of 384 at a rate of 7.68 runs an over, Somerset’s openers Jade Morrissey and Proctor made a decent enough start and bettered their opponent’s opening stand with a partnership of 75 runs before the former lobbed an easy catch to Paynter at mid-on for a stubborn 38.

Proctor, who a day earlier had scored a century for the Bermuda under-19 team against Southampton Rangers, again batted maturely and brought up his 50 with a classy late cut to the boundary for four off Clay Darrell. But Darrell got the last laugh just one run later when he ran in from the deep mid-wicket boundary to take a catch to dismiss the youngster.

Somerset then started to fall behind the required run rate but still showed positivity with Sabir featuring in a 45-run, fifth wicket partnership with Greg Maybury before the latter skied one to deep mid-wicket, where he was caught by Paynter for 19.

Azar Morrissey then partnered Sabir to put on a useful 79-run, seventh-wicket partnership but was run out when trying to stretch a single into a double, leaving Sabir to end the innings on 87 not out.

Paynter claimed the wickets of Proctor and Isiah Richardson in his second over to finish with two wickets for 21 runs. Shakai Darrell and Clay Darrell each assisted with two wickets for 41 and 44 runs respectively.