Lord’s (Bailey’s Bay won toss) Bay beat Cleveland by eight wickets

Holders Bailey’s Bay romped to an eight-wicket victory over Cleveland County at Lord’s in the Eastern Counties on Saturday after opening pair Kyle Hodsoll and Zeko Burgess shared nine wickets to dismiss the challengers for a paltry 89.

Hodsoll claimed five for 31 and Burgess four for 29 as Cleveland were dismissed in 36 overs.

However, the Cleveland bowlers did offer some fight, taking two Bay wickets in the first and fourth overs with only five runs on the board. After that Rodney Trott and Terryn Fray, the captain and vice-captain, shared in an unbroken third wicket stand of 85 in two hours to secure victory for Bay who dethroned St David’s in the first round.

Trott came in to join Fray after Tre Manders was smartly caught by wicketkeeper Najiyah Raynor, who dived to his right to hold on to the edge for his first counties wicket on his debut.

Raynor put down another diving effort off Trott when the score was 18 for two, and that proved costly with Trott and Fray pacing the modest run chase thanks to their sensible batting.

“We lost two early wickets but I have been hitting the ball pretty good leading up to Cup Match and sometimes you just have to back yourself,” said Trott, who completed his second straight half-century and third of the season just before Bay crossed the Cleveland score.

Trott hit seven fours in his 128 minutes, facing 64 balls while Fray was unbeaten on 28, holding up his end for 148 minutes and hitting just two boundaries off 92 balls.

“Fray and I did the job today,” Trott said. “As the vice-captain he played a very important role.

“When they got those two early wickets they were on top but it is all about momentum sometimes.

“I hit a couple of boundaries early on and then you saw the momentum start to shift.

“I told Fray that if we put on a 25 or 30-run partnership that that would pretty much seal the game as we were only chasing 90 runs.

“Overall it was a beautiful team effort, the bowlers bowled extremely well early on when the ball was moving around. Tre Manders held a brilliant catch, one of the best I’ve seen all season.”

It proved to be a good toss to win by Bay, with a shower sending the teams off the field for twelve minutes after just the first over. The one-handed catch by Manders, a diving effort in the covers, provided the breakthrough when he removed Makai Young in the seventh over with 17 on the board, giving Hodsoll his first wicket.

Burgess got Adrian Burrows next over, caught by Stephen Outerbridge at mid-off, and when Treadwell Gibbons departed for a duck next over to make it 17 for three, Cleveland were already in early trouble. Gibbons faced six balls and next out, colt Steven Bremar, went first ball, trapped leg-before by Burgess.

Two more wickets went down on 22 and 26 before two stands of 23, between Dion Stovell and Clay Darrell then Stovell and Damali Bell, gave them hopes of at least reaching 100.

Darrell was dismissed on 49 for six for 21 off 30 balls before Cleveland reached lunch at 63 for six.

After Bell was removed soon after lunch, the bottom fell out of the Cleveland innings when three wickets went down on 72 to leave them nine down, Hodsoll and Burgess doing further damage in their second spells.

Stovell was eighth out after hitting a top score of 24, when he chased a head-high bouncer from Burgess and gave Fray a catch at cover point. He spent 142 minutes at the wicket, faced 58 balls and hit three fours.

Raynor, unfazed by the occasion, scored 14 of the final 17 runs as he offered some late resistance. All his runs came in boundaries after hitting two fours and a six before being bowled by Burgess to end the innings.

Spinner Derrick Brangman, who claimed six wickets on his debut in the first round, and Malachi Jones were the other two bowlers used by Bay, with Jones taking the other wicket. He gave up 21 runs in four overs while Brangman went for seven runs in his seven overs.

Jones, who stroked 184 last weekend against Somerset, was out in the first over when Bell held a low return catch. Manders departed three overs later before Fray and Trott saw Bay home with plenty of time and overs to spare, the game ending at 4.40pm.

Cleveland, with not enough runs on the board to bother the Bay batsmen, used seven bowlers in their bid to pull off an unlikely victory, with openers Bell and captain Dennis Musson getting the two wickets. Bell, used in two spells, had figures of one for eight from seven overs as he bowling the only three maidens in the Bay innings, while Musson had one for 24 off six overs.

Bay will meet Flatts in the final on September 2.

“We’re taking one game at a time, we don’t want to underestimate Flatts because they could show up and do some good things,” stressed Trott, not looking too far ahead to possibly hosting next year’s series at Sea Breeze Oval as champions.

EASTERN COUNTIES SECOND ROUND

Bailey’s Bay v Cleveland County

Lord’s (Bay won toss): Bailey’s Bay beat Cleveland by eight wickets

Cleveland

A Burrows c Outerbridge b Burgess 9

M Young c Manders b Hodsoll 7

K Smith c Jones b Hodsoll 5

T Gibbons c Hodsoll 0

S Bremar (colt) lbw b Burgess 0

D Stovell c Fray b Burgess 24

C Darrell b Jones 21

D Bell c Trott b Hodsoll 3

*D Musson b Hodsoll 0

†N Raynor (colt) b Burgess 14

L Talbot not out 1

Extras (2lb, 2w, 1nb) 5

Total (36 overs) 89

Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-17, 3-17, 4-22, 5-26, 6-49, 7-72, 8-72, 9-72

Bowling: H Hodsoll 14-6-31-5; Z Burgess 11-5-29-4; D Brangman 7-2-7-0; M Jones 4-1-21-1.

Bailey’s Bay

T Fray not out 28

M Jones c and b Bell 2

T Manders c Raynor b Musson 0

*R Trott not out 51

Extras (1b, 3lb, 2w, 3nb) 9

Total (2 wkts, 27 overs) 90

S Outerbridge, T Govia, †S Smith, D Brangman, C Durham, Z Burgess and K Hodsoll did not bat

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-5.

Bowling: D Bell 7-3-8-1; D Musson 6-0-24-1; D Stovell 2-0-9-0; C Darrell 4-0-9-0; L Talbot 5-0-20-0; M Young 2-0-14-0; S Bremar 1-0-2-0.

Umpires: R Dill, M Best.

Final: Bailey’s Bay v Flatts, September 2