Southampton 103-2

Western Stars 99

Southampton Rangers made short work of Western Stars at Southampton Oval yesterday to complete a nightmare weekend for the defending Premier League champions.

Stars lost to Cleveland on Saturday and yesterday their opponents produced an outstanding all-round performance that saw them take an early grip on the match and never let go en route to recording a crushing eight-wicket triumph.

If Stars thought their task might be easier than it was a day earlier then they were in for a rude awakening as Southampton made it all look like ‘child's play'.

Paving the way for Southampton's inspiring win were Olin Jones, who grabbed three wickets for 17 runs, Keith Wainwright with two for 11 and Ryan Belboda, who managed two for 18.

Skipper Janeiro Tucker, meanwhile, was impeccable in the field. The dreadlocked all-rounder held onto two superb catches and executed a brilliant run out to snare the crucial early wicket of Jermaine Postlethwaite who, unlike many of his colleagues, had looked solid at the crease.

“It was a great win. The team has worked very hard ever since pre-season and it's been a very successful weekend for us,” commented Southampton coach Clevie Wade afterwards.

“We came with high intensity playing against the league champions and the whole three departments . . . batting, bowling and fielding were all in place. I think that justice was done today and we deserved this win because over the years Stars have been on top of us. But today was payback.”

Stars won the toss and elected to bat on what appeared to be a friendly surface. However, it wasn't to be as they were soon to find out despite a solid opening stand of 35 runs between Postlethwaite (22) and skipper Albert Steede (15).

Once Steede had departed, out caught and bowled by 15 year-old left-arm seamer Dwyia Blyden, wickets continued to fall.

Postlethwaite was sensationally dismissed. Surviving a confident Gary Williams' appeal for lbw, the lanky batsman stood posing outside his crease. An alert Janeiro Tucker fielded the ball at short mid-off and splintered the stumps to leave the casual batsman stranded in no man's land.

But it was Steede's dismissal which would ignite a severe batting collapse as Stars' next four wickets fell with only five runs added to the total.

The defending champions were quickly spluttering at 40 for five in just the 11th over with Corey Berkeley, Saleem Mukuddem and Jekon Edness all sent back to the pavilion without scoring.

However, Gershon Gibbons (38), batting lower down the order, along with Hasan Durham (six), painstakingly set about repairing the early damage. The pair added 40 runs for the sixth wicket before Durham was caught by Wade fielding at short mid-on.

Gibbons tried desperately to soldier on but in the end he too would succumb, caught and bowled by Jones. Gibbons cracked three fours while Stars' last three wickets fell for only eight runs.

Southampton dismissed their opponents in only 35.1 overs.

Aiding Stars' swift demise were Blyden, who grabbed one for 28 and Williams who had one for 18. Southampton were also stingy in the field, yielding only 13 runs in extras.

In reply, it was never a matter of whether Southampton would reach the target, but when.

Despite Stars grabbing the early wickets of Jones (three) and Kwame Tucker (20), they enjoyed little further success.

Wainwright (24) and Stevie Lightbourne (28) saw their team home to victory at 4.20 p.m. in just 22.2 overs.

Wainwright stroked two fours and a six while Lightbourne managed five fours. Kwame Tucker smashed four fours during his 22-ball knock while Stars didn't aid their cause by giving up 28 runs in extras.

Mukuddem grabbed both Southampton wickets to fall.