WHO the better team was became as clear as black and white when King’s Road took on the GTA Zeebras.

Yet again the Orange Caps were brushed aside in another disappointing defeat – but this time they can muster at least some pride after performing well against the vastly superior Zeebras.

The Orange Caps – who were tonked by the same team last year – refused to roll over and die with newboy Ian Stone hitting an assured 88 on his debut.

Last season the rampant Zeebras blasted an incredible 400 in 40 overs against The Road in an embarrassingly one-sided contest at Tooting Bec Common.

This time though it was a slightly different story with The Road offering at least some resistance – although again they were easily outclassed in the end.

The match at Wandsworth Common kicked off on Sunday in bright sunshine with the Zeebras winning the toss and putting King’s Road into bat.

Ian and Leon Watson opened and were forced to endure a fierce opening spell with the Zeebras bowlers – particularly Richard Bruce – generating some real pace off the pitch.

However, it took until the ninth over for the first wicket to fall when Leon was bowled by the pumped-up Bruce off an inside edge for 12.

In a dramatic over, the fiery speedster then returned next ball to rip through Andy Saker’s defence and bowl him for a duck before getting one to spear in at Jamie Keating’s gloves for a catch behind.

Click here to see the match scorecard

The ball was swinging like a Jabulani and it capped an incredible three-wicket maiden over which left The Road reeling on 26 for 3.

Then up-stepped Ian to launch a spirited one-man recovery as wickets fell at regular intervals at the other end.

Wickie Giles Fagan holed out for 10 off 14, captain Matt Cocken was caught off the whippy pace of Mike MacFarlane.

But with Sham De Silva – who scored 13 off 39 balls – Ian found a partner who could stuck around and the pair put on 71 for the sixth wicket and passed the 100 mark.

Ian continued scoring at a run a ball and hitting some sumptuous late cuts and lofted drives to push the total on until he holed out and became Richard Bruce’s brother Tom’s first wicket of the day.

After that the lower order crumbled yet again. With the run rate grinding to a halt, Sham fell one run later and Welshman James Pritchard was bowled with the score on 158 for 8.

The Road’s new Indian signing Guru Prasad, playing in his first match in England, fell for 3 and 5 runs from Kevin Pittaway on his return from injury took the score to 172 at the close with Raju Mazumder the man left not out.

King’s Road had posted a decent score against a menacing attack – but a score that still looked to be nowhere near enough against a team which also boasted serious power in its batting.

Four batsmen had got to double figures but none got past 13 or were able to push on and provide enough support to Ian to get the total over 2008.

What was needed was a quick breakthrough – and a steady stream of wickets after that if The Road stood any chance of pulling off an unlikely win.

Click here to read last season’s match report

The Road’s first wish came – with opening bowler Kev taking his first wicket of the season in his first over after missing every match so far because of a persistent leg injury.

With just one on the board the Zeebras’ Pete Whitfield lofted it to mid on where a grateful Leon took the catch.

But if The Road got the start they wanted, not much went right after that. In came captain Tom Bruce and at the other end was MacFarlane – the man who hit 200 against them last season.

The pair bludgeoned their way to 72 before Sham finally stepped in to get MacFarlane caught by Giles off a top edge that looped behind the keeper.

By now though it was too late – the Zeebras were coasting it and the writing was on the wall for The Road.

Andy, who reverted from his usual spin to seam bowling for the first time, did manage to bowl Chris Mpamugo for 12 with the score on 88 but it was plain sailing for the Zeebras.

The target never looked enough against such an explosive batting line-up and it was only a matter of time before the Bruce brothers knocked off the runs.

Tom hit an unbeaten 61 and Richard got 44 not out. With both of them taking three wickets each it was a match dominated by the pair.

For The Road, none of the bowlers got anything to write home about but Andy was the pick taking 1 for 11 off 4.

It was another disappointed result for The Road but captain Matt must feel the team clawed back some pride after their drubbing last season.