Pirates complete perfect run to earn first Disability Premier League title

Pirates (143/6) beat Tridents (111/9) by 32 runs.

A terrific unbeaten run culminated in victory for the Pirates, winning their first Disability Premier League (DPL) title at Sophia Gardens.

The precursor to England Men’s 2nd Vitality IT20 against Australia saw a dominant bowling performance overwhelm the Tridents’ batters to see them fall 32 runs short of their 144 target.

Winning the toss and electing to field first, the Tridents started strong as Ben Sutton (1-20) bowled the leading run-scorer of the competition Brendon Parr, for just one.

Parr’s fellow opener Liam Thomas also fell cheaply, making just four runs from his seven balls before being given lbw, which brought captain Anthony Clapham to the crease.

It was at this point that Pirates began to get on the front foot. Clapham (55) led from the front to establish a 98-run partnership with teammate Dan Bowser (48) bringing their side up to 114-2, 16 overs into their innings.

Tridents’ Jordyn Dore (2-10) got the breakthrough wicket of Bowser before executing the same of Clapham. Cameos from Jordan Williams (14) and Monty McKenzie (10) took Pirates to a competitive 143 in sunny Wales, though Tridents would have been happy to restrict them to under 150.

Pakistani pace bowler Adnan Ghani opened proceedings with a fiery start for the Pirates, setting a firm tone that would continue throughout the rest of the match.

Two wickets first up for Ghani meant Tridents were 23-2 four overs in. The addition of Joe Moss (1-26) into the attack saw the back off Chris Edwards for 11, the Tridents progressing to just 27 inside the first six overs.

Fantastic spells from Monty McKenzie (3-24) and the returning Ghani (4-18) saw the end of the Tridents middle order, now too tall a task for lower-order batters Matt Bailey (15*) and Luke Riley (8*) to claw back the run rate, Pirates winning by 32 runs.

The Pirates finished their campaign as confidently as they had started, finally getting their hands on the DPL trophy after two years of falling at the final hurdle.

Player of the Match and Pirates captain, Anthony Clapham, said: “I’m over the moon to be stood here, finally winning it after the last two years! I can feel how the Tridents are today [with our history], credit to them for getting here but honestly, I’m so happy to have finally done it.

“We took the Explosion Over at a key period, we had a couple of low scoring overs and I wanted to change the momentum so we took that and obviously Bowser hit the six, four, and we took 14 or 15 from the over. That was the momentum change for us I think.”

Pirates’ Brendon Parr was named Player of the Tournament as leading run-scorer. The batter made 385 runs in seven matches.