St. George's win thrilling Cup Match | Articles

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St. George’s win thrilling Cup Match
Posted: 2011-07-30

Cup Match 2011
Somerset 97 and 238
St. George’s 188 and 148-8

After four straight draws that left the fans feeling deprived, St. George’s delivered one of the most thrilling victories in Cup Match at Wellington Oval on Friday when they squeezed out a tense two-wicket victory over Somerset.
Going into the 10th over of the mandatory final 20, victory was still there for both teams, Somerset needing two wickets and St. George’s requiring 10 more runs for their 34th victory which ties them with Somerset.
Lionel Cann, whose unbeaten century two years ago at Wellington saved St. George’s from sure defeat, again decided the outcome of the match, scoring 49 not out to lead the champions to victory. St. George’s were set 148 for victory after dismissing Somerset for 238, a target that could have been less than 100 had last-pair Kevin Hurdle and Joshua Gilbert not shared in a stand of 53 in 48 minutes.
Many obervers predicted that scoring about 150 on a wicket of uneven bounce would not be an easy task for the home side, and so it proved as Somerset struck early and often, having the home team 80-4 and then 92-7 after a good foundation had been built by a second wicket stand of 72 between Fiqre Crockwell and captain Oronde Bascome.
Bascome’s became Joshua Gilbert’s first of five wickets when he came down the crease to the spinner and was stumped for 17. It proved to be a turning point in the match as Somerset struck on 76, 80, 82, 84 and 92 as Bascome sat nervously in the pavilion fearing losing the cup on home soil in his second year as captain.
Enter Cann, captain of the team two years ago and the team’s most experienced player. Cup Match’s oldest player kept a cool head and picked his shots perfectly as he built useful partnerships of 43 for the eighth wicket with Justin Pitcher before taking the team to victory with an unbeaten stand of 13 with Stefan Kelly for the ninth wicket. Relieved, too, was colt Damali Bell, the last of the St. George’s batsmen.
Cann just missed out on a half century and now sits 13 runs from the 1,000-run milestone after adding 49 to the 38 he scored in the first innings. With the match in the balance, Cann knocked teenager Joshua Gilbert out of the attack by hitting him for two sixes in his eighth over as the 17-year-old giving up 15 in that over to finish with five for 30 off eight overs, his first five-wicket haul in three Cup Match appearances.
That over eased the pressure considerably and Cann hit another six two overs later off Janeiro Tucker before securing victory with a six and a four off Malachi Jones’ first two balls at the western end to bring scores of spectators onto the pitch in celebration.
Cann hit two fours and four sixes off 43 balls during his 95 minutes at the crease, which saw him dropped by Gilbert in a sharp chance in the covers, a costly miss indeed. Crockwell, asked to open in the second innings, was the highest scorer in the match, hitting 54 valuable runs off 10 boundaries while losing five partners at the other end. Including Jason Anderson, OJ Pitcher, Allan Douglas and Rodney Trott who all failed to reach double figures.
Trailing by 52 overnight at 39-1 (in-form Dion Stovell failing for the second time in the match), Somerset offered stubborn resistence as colt Terryn Fray scored 33 and Stephen Outerbridge 30 as they carried the score to 46 before St. George’s struck back with four wickets for 51 runs.
Stefan Kelly was left to carry the bowling attack after Justin Pitcher did not bowl on the second day because of a knee injury, and just like he did two years ago, Kelly bowled a marathon spell in taking six for 73 off 24 overs for match figures of 11 for 99 which earned him the Man of the Match award.
After Thursday’s batting disaster which effectively cost them the match, there were some improvement in the second innings with colts Fray and Kamau Leverock threatening to reach their first 50s in Cup Match. Leverock, played some mature and confident attacking shots in his top score of 43 which included four fours and two sixes.
The decision of captain Bascome to bring himself into the attack after top bat Janeiro Tucker had settled into his innings, proved a master stroke for Bascome who was hit for four first ball and then came back to trap Tucker lbw the next ball to swing the match back in St. George’s favour.
Bascome finished with one for 28 off 10 overs as Somerset reached 238 for a lead of 147, which was made possible by Kevin Hurdle’s 27 and 21 from Joshua Gilbert in a last-wicket stand of 53.
There were just two 50s in the match (by St. George’s pair Jason Anderson and Fiqre Crockwell) while Cann was one short of the mark. In a rare feat for Cup Match, four different bowlers claimed five wickets in an innings, Pitcher and Kelly of St. George’s and Hurdle and Gilbert for Somerset, while two bowlers, Kelly and Janeiro Tucker, took four wickets. Kelly, recalled to the St. George’s team after missing last year, took four for 26 as first change in the first innings while Tucker had amazing figures of four for seven off 8.3 overs with four maidens in the St. George’s first innings.
It might have been a different scenario had Tucker been brought into the attack earlier on the first afternoon. St. George’s had 165 runs on the board when he was the seventh bowler called on by captain Jekon Edness. Tucker quickly turned things around, taking the last four wickets, including a wicket in his second over and three in his last two overs to slow up the St. George’s push for a bigger first innings lead.