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I'm proud to have retained the cup in my second year as captain of St. George's.

Obviously we would have liked a win, but with the amount of rain that was about, we'll settle for retaining the Cup after what I thought was an entertaining draw.

A lot of people have asked why we didn't declare earlier on Friday.

It's something we talked about and if the game had started on time I had planned to declare first thing. We were on 257 overnight and I felt we could have won from there.

Once play didn't start until 2:30pm on Friday we knew there was no way there was going to be a result.

The wicket was still good and we felt the best way for us to get a moral victory was to bowl them out once and make them follow-on. That would have felt like a victory for us.

We felt if we could get around 320 then we had a chance to bowl them out for less than 220 - that would have been the 100-margin required to make them bat again.

We ended up going on a little bit after we reached 320. I felt it was only fair to give OJ the chance to make his hundred.

Everyone is saying St. George's should have taken the game to them and tried to win, but I couldn't understand some of Somerset's decisions if they were trying to win the game.

You're supposed to be bowling 15 overs an hour, but they only bowled 54 overs in five hours on day one. They took forever to set their fields.

I guess their game plans weren't working but we were scoring at five runs an over, which is a good rate as champions.

We took the game to them after being put into bat on a good batting strip. When they sent us into bat, I couldn't believe it.

We definitely wanted to bat first on that wicket and you could see after three or four overs their bowlers just stopped running in.

Our openers did a good job for us. Once they got us through that first hour there was no way we could lose. Chris showed what class he has and Oronde Bascome played a great role for us. That was the game, right there.

Doesn't need changing

Every time we have a draw people start to talk about changing the format of Cup Match.

I always used to say everything should be limited overs. I'm a limited overs man, but if you look at the tradition of Cup Match it's the only unique cricket game we have left.

Last year we made it two wins in a row. People have to realize that hadn't happened for years. Now, when more than half the game was taken out by rain, we get a draw, and people say change the format?

You can't expect a result every year. It's just not going to happen.

There were only 110 overs bowled this year. Cup Match is usually 240.

It was still an exciting game, I think. We saw some great batting from young OJ. He was so unlucky to be out in the 90s for the second time in a row.

He was very upset. Anyone would be upset to get that close once and not get a century, but to do it back to back is devastating.

But you know OJ is a strong guy and he will go on to score four or five hundreds in Cup Match. He was the top scorer again this year and he has to be the MVP - without a doubt.

You saw a lot of young players come out and play well in this game.

Oronde (Bascome) and Chris (Foggo) had great innings. For Somerset Jekon (Edness) and Azeem (Pitcher) performed well.

Malachi Jones had another good game. It may have been a draw but you can still take those pleasures out of it.

Test matches go on for five days and you still don't always get a result!

Bermuda tour

It's back to national duty now as I head to Europe with Bermuda. It's a new group of players and a new team, so I don't know what to expect.

These players have already shown they have commitment. They have been picked because of their commitment to the national programme so that is a good sign.

From my own point of view I'm tired and I'm tired of cricket. I've played non-stop for so long. Coming off County Cup and then Cup Match this tour has hit me just like that.

I had to call the board on Sunday to find out when the flight was and they told me it was the next day. It's just crept up on me.

Playing for your country is the ultimate goal and after a nice long plane ride and a couple of days rest I'll be ready for Denmark.

We don't know what they are going to be like but they gave Ireland a run for their money recently, so they can't be bad. They are playing in their own country, on grassy strips. It's going to be a test for our rookie team.

I expect I'll have a different role to play this time. I've always been the finisher for the team.

But I don't need to wait for the coach to tell me it will be different this time. I can look at the squad and see what my responsibility is going to be. It's a new group and I'm going to be one of the senior players. It's up to us to take more responsibility and help bring those new guys up to this level.

Whatever I'm asked to do, I'll be ready for it.[[In-content Ad]]

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