St George’s can take some positives from a few individual performances over the two days of Cup Match, but it still could not prevent them from suffering another crushing defeat by Somerset.

In 2012 they were soundly beaten by ten wickets and this year went down by eight wickets after leading by 36 runs on first innings before chasing a declaration target on the second afternoon that backfired.

Somerset pair Terryn Fray and Tre Manders shared in a match-changing second-wicket stand of 151 — the third-highest partnership for the second wicket in Cup Match behind Wendell Smith and Clay Smith (200) and Timmy Edwards and Kenny Maybury (169) — that took Somerset to the brink of victory.

Fray won the man-of-the-match award for his 121 not out, while Manders added 55 to go with his 65 in the first innings. In four innings since his debut in 2012, Manders has already scored 258 runs, with a century and two fifties and is averaging 64.50. Fray’s figures are impressive, too, with his unbeaten century taking his aggregate to 246 in five innings at an average of 49.20.

The positives for St George’s include George O’Brien’s eight wickets for 76 runs from 17.1 overs in the first innings, which is the fifth all-time best bowling in an innings, OJ Pitcher’s first century (115) in Cup Match which moves him to 525 runs and from 46th to 26th on the aggregate list, one run ahead of Lloyd Simmons, the former Somerset captain.

Lionel Cann’s 34 runs in the match moves him two runs ahead of Clay Smith into fourth place for most runs in Cup Match with 1,078.

Then there was the performance of 16-year-old Delray Rawlins, possibly the best debut by a teenager since Richard Basden, then 18, who scored 57 and 55 in 1985 at Wellington Oval. Rawlins, who shared in a sixth-wicket stand of 104 with Cann, also finished with two wickets for 56 runs in the Somerset innings, before picking up a lone wicket in the second innings. “I credit our bowlers, they put in the work but it just wasn’t out there today [Friday], the elements weren’t there, it was hot and dry and nothing happened with the ball,” Oronde Bascome, the St George’s captain, said. “George put in a lot of work the first day and we really couldn’t expect him to do the same the second day, but that’s how cricket goes.”

Bascome took the criticism on the chin for the manner of his own dismissal on the second-last ball before lunch in the second innings, driving the ball back down the crease to Janeiro Tucker, as the challengers went from 76 without loss to 94 for four in the blink of an eye.

Bascome admitted that his bowlers were not up to the task of dismissing a strong Somerset team in the second innings. “That’s fair to say, but at the end of the day we just have to look at what went wrong and look to do better next year,” he said. “I deserve the criticism I got, but we were looking to bat another hour after lunch, so I wasn’t regarding just lunch but still looking to push the runs in that over. We still had batsmen in the pavilion who could come after me.”

Jekon Edness, the Somerset captain, said his team had plenty of time to think about their batting strategy as St George’s chased a declaration. “We were just taking our time, slowing the game down and thinking about what we wanted to do when we were in the field,” Edness said.

“Two days of hard cricket and we can come out with a victory. We were the better team over the two days. Yes, they had the better of us on day one but you can’t judge a man’s character when he is winning.

“We were down but far from out. We came out on the second day and put the performances together and were victorious. Like I said before the game, St George’s would really need things to go their way to bowl us out twice with that batting line-up. On the second day, we showed up and our class prevailed.

“Credit to my team, the coaching staff and everyone who made this day possible. The fans wanted a result and in three of the four years that I’ve been captain, we’ve had a result.”