Wellington Oval (St David’s won toss): St David’s beat St George’s by ten wickets

St David’s demolished St George’s inside 90 minutes to put themselves within touching distance of another Logic Premier Division title.

After bowling the home side out for 49 under grey skies, St David’s needed only 6.4 overs to clinch victory, easily completing their run chase without even looking like losing a wicket.

It sets up the defending champions for a title decider against Southampton Rangers in St David’s on the last day of the season next week.

With Neil Paynter, the St George’s club president who was forced into action as tailender, the only batsman to make double figures, the home side simply had no answer to the off spin of Del Hollis, who claimed six for 23.

Opening the bowling, Hollis set the tone for the match by removing Chae Foggo for a duck and Mackie Crane and Oronde Bascome for eight each; the extent of the St George’s resistance underlined by Crane and Bascome’s second-wicket partnership of 14 being the joint highest of the innings. George O’Brien, the fast bowler, took three for 19, with Kevin Hurdle bowling four wicketless but economical overs.

Paynter at least won a couple of sympathy-laced cheers when he hit a four and a six late on, as he briefly threatened to take the home side past the half-century mark. But they fell a run short of that modest ambition, with their innings of only 14.2 overs lasting exactly one hour.

Fiqre Crockwell and OJ Pitcher, the St David’s opening batsmen, wasted no time in showing how it was done, smashing more than a quarter of their required runs from the opening over bowled by Jamel Daniels.

It took them 28 minutes to complete the job. Pitcher, the captain, contributed a solid 18, but Crockwell was dominant, helping himself to five fours in a powerful 28. He would have had a six, too, hitting Akeem Trott out of the ground from the final ball of the match, when the scores were tied. However, it was called no-ball, meaning the game was already won before the ball reached the batsman.

Wendell Smith, the St David’s coach, confessed that he had missed Hollis’s destruction job. “I left for breakfast after the first couple of overs, then I came back and it was six for 20-something,” Smith said. “We wanted to get as many bonus points as we could and I think we did a good job of that. It was a perfect day.

“Del Hollis is a very deceptive bowler and very underrated. Over the last four years, he’s been our most economical bowler. It was probably a mistake of mine not to open the bowling with him when we lost the county game to Cleveland.

“But at least having lost the county, if we can get the league title and the Belco Cup, that’s still not a bad season.

“It will come down to our game against Rangers, the two top teams playing each other at a beautiful ground. Our players have said they are ready to do extra training this week and do whatever it takes. We’re up against the most in-form batsman in Bermuda, in Dion Stovell, and, of course, Janeiro Tucker. What a good way to end the season.”