Jordan DeSilva, the Somerset captain, admits his side were a little frustrated at having to settle for a “winning draw” in a rain-affected Cup Match at Wellington Oval yesterday.

Despite persistent showers ensuring just 6.2 overs were bowled on the first day on Thursday, Somerset were still able to put themselves in a winning position after skittling St George’s out for 89 runs in their first innings.

Somerset then gave themselves a lead of 122 after declaring on 211 for seven, with Chris Douglas scoring a maiden Cup Match fifty, but the holders fell five wickets short of a second successive win in the East End as St George’s dug in to finish on 104 for five.

“For the second straight year if any team was going to win it was going to be us,” said DeSilva, who was captaining Somerset for the first time in St George’s.

“It was a winning draw for us and you really can’t complain when you keep the cup.

“Considering only six overs were bowled yesterday, I thought we did well to come this close to getting a result.”

DeSilva said he perhaps should have declared a bit sooner and that his only regret was his side not scoring at a faster rate.

“There wasn’t much we could have done differently,” DeSilva, 27, said.

“Overall I’m happy with my decisions, my bowling changes and field settings, but maybe we might have scored a bit quicker and then declared a bit earlier before tea.

“Credit to my players, though, especially Chris who batted well and Malachi Jones and Kamau Leverock who bowled well this morning and this evening to get us in a winning position.

“Kamau showed today why we brought him in. He bowls with real pace and hit the ball hard and showed that in his cameo innings [of 32].”

Ultimately it was the experienced pair of Lionel Cann and Rodney Trott who prevented Somerset from exposing the St George’s tail with an unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 46.

“We knew what Lionel was going to do,” DeSilva said. “Lionel can be a match-winner or a match-saver and when Rodney decides to shut up shop he usually does it well.”

Douglas said his first half-century in Cup Match was a “monkey off his back”, with the Somerset opener reaching the milestone in his ninth appearance in the classic.

“It was a pleasure to get that half-century as I’m nine Cup Matches in now and maybe 15 innings,” said Douglas, whose previous highest score was 41.

“It was nice to get that bogey off my back. It would have been even better to get it in front of my own crowd at Somerset but I’ll take it wherever I can get it.

“Now I’ve got a 69, I hope my next goal can be a hundred in front of my home crowd next year.”

The 27-year-old admits he was disappointed that Somerset’s dominance did not translate into what would have been a famous triumph in their rivals’ backyard.

“I’m a little upset we couldn’t pull off the victory,” he said. “Maybe that was to do with our fitness as we just didn’t have that extra push we needed to get the wickets in the last hour or so.

“Credit to Lionel and Rodney, though. When they came together it was like, ‘We can’t get this’. It was almost like [José] Mourinho parking the bus!”

Leverock, playing his first Cup Match since 2013, said he was eager to entertain the crowd and show how much he has developed since moving to Britain to further his cricket career.

“I had a bit of fun today and just wanted to show what I could do,” said Leverock, who plays for the Cardiff MCC University.

“I wanted to show how much I’ve grown as a player in the past four years. I thought I could have done a bit more with the bat, but we were trying to declare and I was trying to get some quick runs.”

Leverock, 22, added: “I thought we were on track for victory but things swung a bit differently in the end.”