A superlative knock of 153 from Kamau Leverock tightened Somerset’s grip on the Cup Match trophy today.

Leverock, who was promoted up the order to open the batting alongside the champions’ new captain Terryn Fray, lit up the Annual Classic on the opening day and had the passionate home fans in thrall with a knock that featured 20 boundaries and six sixes.

The former Bermuda all-rounder raced to his century in 76 deliveries, the fastest hundred in the history of Cup Match. He fell 33 runs short of Janeiro Tucker’s 186, compiled in 2001 at Wellington Oval, which remains the highest individual score in the two-day classic.

Challengers St George’s knew after the first two hours of play that they faced an uphill battle with their cause not helped by Oronde Bascome and Nzari Paynter dropping Fray on one and 33 respectively, before he went on to make 51.

Leverock and Fray put up 169 runs for the first wicket, a record, beating the 153 set by the Somerset captain and Chris Douglas at the same venue in 2018.

Among Somerset’s top order, only Tre Manders (6) failed to make double figures, with Dion Stovell (37), Steven Bremar Jr (27) and Malachi Jones (18) making decent contributions as their side declared on 345 for nine.

Zeko Burgess was the pick of the St George’s bowlers, taking four for 73 in 14 overs, while Delray Rawlins recorded figures of two for 98 from 20.4 overs.

Kevon Fubler, making his Cup Match debut, took one for 85 off 14 overs, while Paynter took Leverock’s wicket, with the help of some great fielding by substitute fielder Luke Horan. This year’s youngest Cup Match player, Luke Fulton, took no wickets for 36 runs in his 11 overs.

In reply, St George’s struggled, closing the day at 80 for five and facing a huge task to avoid the follow-on. With five wickets in hand, the East Enders are trailing by 265 runs and require a further 166 runs for Somerset to take to the crease again.

Only Nzari Paynter (35) and Marcus Scotland (29 not out) showed any durability with the bat, with Oronde Bascome (5), Jonte Smith (0), Delray Rawlins (1) and Onias Bascome (1) making all too brief appearances at the crease.

Stovell did most of the damage with the ball in hand for Somerset, with the off spinner picking up three wickets for 18 runs in nine overs.

A delighted Fray was full of praise for his opening batting partner for showing what he is capable of producing.

“Today was the Kamau Leverock show, he did well with the bat and got us to a good total,” Fray told The Royal Gazette.

“It was great to sit back and watch, you know what he’s capable of doing, and I think it was long overdue for him to do well in this competition. He definitely showed up and performed today, so hats off to Kamau.”

The Somerset captain praised his team-mates for an exceptional opening day display to put their side firmly in control.

“We took advantage of their bowling early, especially with a lot of guys behind the bat, it was easy to score down the ground,’’ he said.

“The guys played some really good cricket, Dion Stovell led with the ball. It’s all coming together nicely.

“We were looking to bat a little longer but we didn’t want to give them the momentum of bowling us out, so we decided to declare and not give our No 11 a chance to bat.

“If we bowl well tomorrow in the morning, there’s a little bit of dew on the wicket. A couple of more wickets, we can knock them down for less than what the follow-on score is, it puts us in a great position after that.”

St George’s coach Clay Smith felt that they failed to capitalise on a wicket that was suitable for batting.

“It was just a bad day at the office,’’ Smith said. “Somerset showed up, they won the toss on a very good batting track, and we didn’t play to our full potential.

“We have to go back, regroup and show some character tomorrow by putting on a much better performance.

“We didn't come up here to lose, so right now the game is pretty much in Somerset’s favour, all we have to do is go out there and bat ourselves back into it.”

The St George’s legend defended some of his senior batsmen for the soft manner in which they were dismissed.

“Nobody gets out because they want to get out,’’ he said. “The wicket was turning and we were pretty much in a defensive frame of mind trying to get through to the night.

“Because we were in that state of mind, they were able to capitalise and that’s the bottom line.”