Lord’s (St David’s won toss): St David’s beat Willow Cuts by six wickets

The battle of the two unbeaten teams in the Logic Premier Division turned out to be a one-sided contest as St David’s, the defending champions, made easy work of Willow Cuts at Lord’s, winning comfortably by six wickets after dismissing Cuts for just 92 in 36.1 overs.

The battle of the St David’s bowlers against the Cuts batting was won easily by the home team, even without new signing Kevin Hurdle whose debut for St David’s was delayed because of illness.

George O’Brien and Rudell Pitcher, who shared the new ball, took three wickets apiece as Cuts suffered an early setback with the loss of their first two wickets — Shaquille Jones and Chris Douglas — in successive balls in O’Brien’s third over and they never recovered, slumping to 42 for seven after just 18 overs.

The two highest contributions for Willow Cuts did not come until the heart had been ripped out of their batting, when Sheroy Fubler and Kevon Fubler put on 24 for the ninth wicket in taking the score from 55 to 79.

O’Brien and Pitcher had almost identical figures, the former finishing with three for 25 from 10 overs against his former team and Pitcher three for 27 from his ten with two maidens. “Our team right now is on such a high, everything is going our way,” OJ Pitcher, the St David’s captain, said. “The bowlers are bowling exceptional and as far as the toss we had a feeling showers would be around today so to win that toss was very important.

“To bowl a team like Cuts out for 92 runs in exceptional. All credit to my bowlers, George and Rudell both bowled well. To get guys like Chris Foggo and Chris Douglas out early was a big bonus for the team, but we still have to play them again. There’s a lot of cricket left in the season, but right now we’re on the right track.

“Hurdle was selected today but came down with an illness at the last minute, so best wishes to him and we’ll see him soon.”

After the early loss of the captain and McLaren Lowe, with just ten runs on the board, Fiqre Crockwell paced the run chase with 31 from five fours before he became one of Kevon Fubler’s two wickets.

Angelo Cannonier and Rudell Pitcher shared in an unbeaten fifth wicket stand of 36 to reach the target in just 15.4 overs.

“It was basically over once we got the top four bats,” Wendell Smith, the St David’s coach, said. “Getting Chris Douglas early again set the tone for us because he is the guy I most feared.

“Then Deunte Darrell went to a brilliant run out when Del Hollis scooped it up well from a bad throw at the bowler’s end. That really put us in the driver’s seat. Chasing 92 you really need just one guy to bat decent and Fiqre, again, came out and did his thing.”