North Field (Western Stars won toss): St George’s beat Western Stars by 12 runs

St George’s put their two-wicket defeat at the hands of Bailey’s Bay behind them to hold off Western Stars in the BCB 50 Overs Premier Division yesterday.

In an encounter reduced to a 28-overs affair because of a wet pitch, St George’s were bowled out for 130 in 27.2 overs before their bowlers managed to put up a great fight to restrict Western Stars to 118 for six in 28 overs.

After a lengthy delay caused by heavy rain, the only Premier Division fixture to go ahead this weekend got under way with the overs reduced.

With national coach Niraj Odedra and captain Delray Rawlins looking on, St George’s struggled to put runs on the scoreboard with their opening partnership between Temiko Wilson and Nzari Paynter producing just 18 runs before the latter departed in the sixth over. Wilson went on to top score with a patient 40 runs off 67 balls with Macai Simmons contributing 35 from 31 balls.

Spinners Makai Young and Brian Hall pegged back St George’s with some good bowling which saw the pair collect four wickets each. Hall picked up four for 16 in 5.2 overs while Young took four for 34 in his six overs.

While the conditions improved with the sun coming out when Western Stars came out to bat, they struggled from the onset,

Jason Anderson was trapped in front by pace bowler Zeko Burgess for one run in the fifth over. His opening partner Khiry Furbert was the highest run scorer with a 59-ball 44. Furbert did get support from Hall who struck an unbeaten 24 while captain Tre Manders chipped in with 16.

Burgess picked up three for 18 in his six overs with two wickets taken by Paynter.

St George’s coach Clay Smith was full of praise for his players as the win keeps them in the hunt for the title with Bailey’s Bay and Cleveland County, and felt his players acquitted themselves well to get the win.

“It was a tough wina and these last couple of weeks have been very difficult for us,” Smith said.

“We lost six players in the transfer window and over the last couple of weeks we've had a few injuries. This week we had to make four changes to our team due to injuries and people flying off the island, so I take my hat off to the players who came in and did the job.”

Looking to bounce back from defeat against title rivals Bailey’s Bay, Smith revealed that he asked his players to remain composed.

“We lost a close match to Bailey’s Bay last week,” Smith said.

“One thing I kept emphasising to them is that they should remain calm under pressure, make sure we execute our gameplan and I thought we handled the pressure a lot better today, which shows that they are learning from the mistakes.

“I thought it was pretty much an all-round performance. We batted when the wicket was a little damp, so we just tried to post a decent score. We felt that 130 to 140 would win us the match.

“We thought we were probably about ten to 20 runs short, but our bowlers came on and bowled the right lengths which was important on this wicket.”

St George’s take on fellow title chasers Cleveland in their next games and Smith is hoping to have some key players back fit for that crucial match.