Davies blasts T20 Plate final century – but Portsmouth & Southsea suffer double Southern Premier League agony

The opener hammered an unbeaten 103 off 68 balls as P & S rattled up 172-2 against higher division Fair Oak in the final of the Southern Premier League’s T20 Plate at St James’.

But Oak, after losing early wickets, claimed a four-wicket victory when Rufus Bullough struck a six off teenager Umar Malik with just three balls remaining.

It was a cruel ending to the truncated 2020 season for Ben Saunders and his P & S side, who had lost the SPL Division 2/Division 3 grand final to another higher division club, Bashley Rydal 2nds, the previous day.

P & S have now lost three finals in two years - in 2019 they also reached the Plate final but lost to the Hampshire Academy by 11 runs at The Ageas Bowl.

Davies top scored with 54 on that occasion, and entered the final having struck an unbeaten 90 in the previous week’s semi-final win against two divisions higher Rowledge.

He hit 10 fours and three sixes in that game, and followed up with 10 fours and five sixes in his 68-ball innings against Oak after Saunders had elected to bat first.

Davies finished the season with 447 SPL runs from nine innings in 40-over and 20-over cricket at an average of 49.67.

The only two batsman who scored more than him were the Academy’s Tom Prest (462 runs from nine innings) and Portsmouth & Southsea colleague Matt Benfield (455 runs from 11 innings).

Benfield (5) fell cheaply against Oak but Davies and Ollie Kanavan (28) added 125 for the second wicket.

Dean Lee whacked four fours in his unbeaten 18 off eight balls as P & S set a challenging target in the late summer sunshine.

In reply, Jake Peach struck in his first over. Having been hit for a six and a single by Gregor McKenzie, he had Michael McKenzie caught by Saunders for a golden duck.

It was 12-2 when Jono Willey had Gregor McKenzie caught by Malik.

Oak were in some trouble on 65-4 when Tom Benfield ran out Greig Stewart for a single.

But captain Charlie Gwynn (47 off 35 balls) and Rhys Oxley began the fightback by adding 56 for the fifth wicket.

Oxley blitzed four sixes and five fours in a 27-ball 58 before he was caught by Davies off Peach to make it 146-6 with 27 still required.

Bullough, though, hit three fours and two sixes in his 19-ball unbeaten 33 - his second maximum sealing the silverware.

Willey (2-18) and Peach (2-30) recorded good figures, but Keiron Dunstan suffered, conceding 47 runs off his four overs. Malik went for 33 runs off his 2.3 overs.

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George Wilson hit an undefeated half-century as Bashley (Rydal) II hauled themselves out of trouble for a second time to beat Portsmouth & Southsea by three wickets and win the Southern Premier League Cup Division 2/3 grand final.

The New Forest club, who lifted the Southern Premier League Division 3 title in 2019, were in a perilous state at 62-6 chasing down the hosts’ 149-7 when seam all-rounder Wilson joined 16-year old Will Tripcony at the St James’s Park crease.

Together the seventh-wicket pair retrieved the situation – caused in the main by the P & S seam attack - almost doubling the Bashley total to 120-7 before Tripcony was bowled by left-arm spinner Kieron Dunstan (2-27) for 23.

Earlier, Jake Peach (2-33), Jono Willey (2-38) and the departing Chris Turrell (1-27) had ripped through the Bashley top order.

The visitors - who were due to play in a higher division than P & S this year prior to the pandemic rearranging the fixture list - had slipped to 32-4 before Tom Jacques (23) hit a six and three fours in an important knock.

Dunstan knocked over both Jacques and Tripcony, and skipper Ben Saunders were causing the batsmen plenty of problems on a spin-friendly surface.

But once their respective spells had finished, Wilson took complete charge, hitting a six and seven fours in an undefeated 58 - scoring all but two of the next 30 runs Bashley needed to lift the trophy.

Portsmouth & Southsea’s 149-7 had largely been built around openers Matt Benfield (52) and Jack Davies (33), who put on 77 before Bashley’s own spinners got into the act.

The openers fell to Simon Watkins (2-30) and the emerging Jacob Gordon (2-11 off eight) as After Ollie Kanavan (0) and Alex Davidson (1) had departed cheaply, P & S dropped to 94-4 when Benfield, who had hit eight fours and a six, became the first of two smart stumpings by skipper Patrick Lewis.

Dean Lee (22) and Tom Benfield (19) added 42 for the fifth wicket before both fell victim to Simon Ridley (2-26) as P & S saw their last three wickets go for 12 runs.

It was P & S’ first defeat in the competition, as they had won all five of their completed group games and had the other two rained off.