Lord’s, St David’s (St George’s won toss): St David’s beat St. George’s by 129 runs

It is often said that one can forget about the form book and throw away all manner of statistical superiority or inferiority when it comes to derby matches, however this train of thought could not be applied to yesterday’s east end derby which went very much according to both form and statistical script.

Indeed it was quite easy to decipher contender from pretender, as St David’s clearly announced to their rivals just who are the kings of the east end.

There was but one small victory for St George’s on the day ... the toss, but even that was captured via default as they were awarded the decision because of the pitch not being ready on time.

Yet even with that small triumph it could be argued that they chose wrong as they put the home team into bat first. Despite some early success in a match reduced to 32 overs, St George’s were made to toil in the field as St David’s racked up 195 for six, which would be 129 runs more than St George’s could score, meaning they heaped two hours of match play misery upon themselves that could have been avoided had they simply made the choice to bat.

Again there were initial breakthroughs as spirited opening spells from Mackie Crane and Herbie Bascome produced three quick wickets, as the Islanders stumbled out of the blocks to 17 for three, but a century partnership for the fourth wicket between OJ Pitcher and Justin Pitcher effectively ended any chance St George’s had of making a match of things considering their brittle batting line-up and St David’s’ penetrative bowling attack.

OJ Pitcher yet would have provided contentment for St George’s’ Cup Match selectors as he was classy in notching 73 from 61 balls, including five fours and two sixes, while Pitcher offered a sampling of his all-round ability as his 60 came from 80 balls and had a six and six boundaries.

And if St David’s scoring runs off the bat was not enough, St George’s were further penalised 12 runs for bowling a slow over rate, meaning that 22 extras in total were surrendered.

Crane ended as their best bowler with three for 22, while captain Macai Simmons grabbed two for 47.

Set an asking rate of a little more than six runs per over, matters were always going to be challenging for an aforementioned weak batting line-up not exactly geared for twenty20 type format or any other at this stage.

They scratched their way to 13 in the initial ten overs without losing a wickets, however with the rate climbing beyond eight the feeling was that a collapse was imminent.

So it was that the flood of wickets came as from 13 without loss St George’s were all out at 66.

Chief destroyer on the day was Del Hollis who decimated the middle and late order with his off breaks to end with figures of five for 10 from 4.5 overs. Rudell Pitcher meanwhile took two for 15, while Kevin Hurdle, Justin Pitcher and Delyone Borden each grabbed one apiece.

In the end it appeared as good news for St George’s in that they can only get better. The bad news is that it may take a while.