St George opening batsman Nick Watkins had a debut to remember but couldn’t stop Saints from falling to a 50-run loss to premiers Bankstown in their opening NSW Premier Cricket match of the season.
Watkins, who joined the club from North Sydney in the off-season, scored an unbeaten 106 at the top of the order as Saints were bowled out for 211 after Bankstown had earlier made 8-261 from their 50 overs.
Watkins smashed 10 boundaries and a six in his 128-ball innings at Hurstville Oval but failed to get enough support from a quality St George batting line up.
When state players Kurtis Patterson (38), Moises Henriques (18) and captain Trent Copeland (3) fell St George still needed another 96 runs to win.
But Bankstown opener Nathan McAndrew took a hat-trick, which included the wickets of lower order batsmen Darius Visser, Ben Patterson and Nathan Ellis, to all but seal victory for the visitors.
Earlier, Copeland (3-43) and Ellis (3-54) had been the best with the ball for St George, while Henriques (1-50) and debutant Patterson (1-32) took Saints’ other wickets.
St George will look to bounce back from their round one defeat when they host Sydney University on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Sutherland enjoyed a perfect start to their campaign with a convincing seven-wicket victory over Sydney at Glenn McGrath Oval.
Sutherland bundled out the visitors for 174 with captain Ben Dwarshuis (3-31) and Kiwi import Michael Barry (3-28) picking up six wickets between them. Kyle Brockley also took 2-21.
In reply, a 117-run opening stand between Chris Williams (75 not out) and Jarryd Biviano (55) set up the win before Dwarshuis (9) and Barry (3 not out) helped Sutherland cruise to victory with more than seven overs remaining.
Sutherland host Mosman at Glenn McGrath Oval in round two on Saturday.
