O’Brien inspires St David’s recovery
Sea Breeze Oval (St David’s won toss): St David’s beat Bailey’s Bay by five wickets.
Wendell Smith, the St David’s coach, has been praising George O’Brien’s bowling lately.
Yesterday the seam bowler showed he can handle the bat, too, scoring a valuable 61 from six fours and four sixes to pull the Premier League champions out of a deep hole and lead them to an impressive victory.
Responding to the Bay target of 168, St David’s had a patient 28-run start between Delyone Borden and captain OJ Pitcher, but when Borden top-edged a hook and skied a catch to Lateef Trott at slip in the eighth over, the match quickly took a dramatic turn.
Trott engineered that slump, taking three wickets in the space of six balls between his third and fourth overs as St David’s quickly found themselves 31 for four after Trott removed Pitcher, Fiqre Crockwell to a smart low catch by wicketkeeper Sinclair Smith and Angelo Cannonier lbw.
O’Brien and new partner McLaren Lowe set about repairing the damage with a match-winning partnership of 118 for the fifth wicket, O’Brien the dominant one with six fours and four well-struck sixes but Lowe no less important to the stand with 55 knot out. After O’Brien was bowled by a Kyle Hodsoll yorker on 148, Lowe and Rudell Pitcher sealed the victory with an stand of 23, Pitcher finishing with 16 not out.
“It was definitely a team effort and I just had to come in and play my part, put my head down and bat for the team,” said Lowe, who praised O’Brien for the way he batted. “He’s definitely underrated as a batsman, when he puts his head down.
“I hadn’t been doing too good before that, but I just had to take my time and be patient. I give all the [Bay] guys credit, they fought hard and made us dig deep. Our goal was to get it to 100 and when we got to 130 we said let’s take it all the way.”
Trott finished with three for 27 from his ten overs while Hodsoll had two for 41 off ten.
Earlier, Rodney Trott saved them from a total collapse when his knock of 57 not out rescued them from 48 for five after O’Brien dealt some early blows on his way to three for 38.
Rudell Pitcher took two for 24 and debutant Kevin Hurdle one for 41 from seven.
Lateef Trott offered some resistance in the Bay tailend with 23, adding 34 with Rodney Trott for the ninth wicket. Stephen Outerbridge, the Bay captain, scored 25.
Sea Breeze Oval (St David’s won toss): St David’s beat Bay by five wickets
Bailey’s Bay
C Smith c Crockwell b O’Brien 0
C Durham lbw b O’Brien 4
†S Smith run out 5
*S Outerbridge b Hurdle 25
D Lovell c Crockwell b R Pitcher 0
R Trott not out 57
R Steede lbw b Hollis 14
J Usher c O Pitcher b Borden 3
K Hodsoll c Crockwell b O’Brien 15
L Trott c Cannonier b R Pitcher 23
B Outerbridge not out 1
Extras (b 3, lb 1, w 17) 21
Total (9 wkts, 50 overs) 168
Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-11, 3-19, 4-20, 5-48, 6-81, 7-103, 8-130, 9-164.
Bowling: O’Brien 10-0-38-3; R Pitcher 7-1-24-2; Hurdle 7-0-41-1; Borden 10-1-28-1; Hollis 10-5-6-1; J Pitcher 6-0-27-0.
St David’s
D Borden c L Trott b Hodsoll 23
OJ Pitcher c Durham b L Trott 4
†F Crockwell c S Smith b L Trott 0
A Cannonier lbw b L Trott 0
G O’Brien b Hodsoll 61
M Lowe not out 55
R Pitcher not out 16
Extras (b 3, lb 6, w 3, nb 1) 13
Total (5 wkts, 38.2 overs) 172
D Hollis, G O’Brien, J Pitcher and K Hurdle did not bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-28, 2-28, 3-28, 4-31, 5-149.
Bowling: Hodsoll 10-2-41-2; R Trott 6-0-21-0; L Trott 10-3-27-3; Steede 4-0-33-0; B Outerbridge 4-0-17-0; Usher 3.2-1-15-0; S Outerbridge 1-0-9-0.
Umpires: S Douglas and L Smith.
