St George’s Twenty20 Cup hopes took a hit on Sunday as they lost both their round three and four clashes at Hurstville Oval.
Saints fell 15 runs short of Randwick Petersham’s 8-188 in their first match of the day, finishing their innings at 4-173 despite half centuries to Moises Henriques (53) and captain Nick Stapleton (56).
Chris MacDougal had been the best with the ball for St George, taking 3-35 as Randwick’s Daniel Sams blasted 92 from just 39 balls.
In the afternoon match, Saints finished their innings at 9-111 against Gordon with MacDougal’s run-a-ball 21 the best St George could muster. The visitors passed the St George total in the 15th over for the loss of three wickets.
Meanwhile, Sutherland edged out Illawarra in their only match at North Dalton Park.
Sutherland made 7-135 with the bat, with Jamie Brown top scoring with 44. In reply, Illawarra were restricted to 6-127 as Sutherland made it three wins from as many matches.
In first grade on Saturday, St George suffered a heart-breaking one-wicket loss to Sydney.
Saints went into day two of their round five clash looking to defend 283 at Hurstville and had Sydney reeling at 7-95 as Stapleton ripped through the visitors’ top order, taking 6-72.
But a 103-run partnership for the eighth wicket between Ryan Felsch (73) and Nicholas Bills (87 not out) and a 56-run ninth-wicket stand between Bills and Alex Glendenning got Sydney back in the match before No.11 Daniel Smith (21 not out) combined with Bills as Sydney snuck home.