U-19s hammer Leewards to set up final-round showdown

GEORGETOWN—Emmanuel Lett continued his outstanding showing at the WICB Regional Under-19 Championship with another brilliant performance on Saturday to re-ignite Trinidad and Tobago hopes of winning the One-Day title. Three-and-a-half weeks ago the 18-year-old came into the tournament as an unknown quantity, but he has proven to be T&T’s man for every crisis. He made a memorable unbeaten 187 in the three-day tournament and yesterday he turned bowling hero with five wickets as T&T, the defending champs, blanked Leeward Islands by 96 runs at Bourda in their fourth round encounter.
This means T&T are now in second behind Barbados with the two teams meeting in the title decider tomorrow.

Lett, bowling his uncomplicated but deadly accurate off-spin, took a career-best five for 21 from eight overs to send the Leewards spinning to 141 all out off 35.5 overs, as they chased T&T’s 237 off 50 overs, their best batting effort of the limited-overs tournament. Lett’s main victim was opener Shaquille Martina, who was well held by wicketkeeper Steven Katwaroo, who was again a livewire behind the stumps. The free-scoring Martina gave the innings a blazing start with a run-a-ball 4, including an amazing back foot slap on the up to the cover-point boundary off pacer Philton Williams. Earlier in the day, Lett made a patient 33 from 52 balls in a second wicket stand of 85 with opener Christian Herrera, who made 37 off 49 balls, after T&T won the toss and batted. The innings dipped from 85 for two to 130 for six but skipper Steven Katwaroo engineered a superb lower order rally as the last four wickets added 100 runs in 20 overs.

CMC

SCOREBOARD

T&T vs Leewards – 4th round

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
C Herrera c Henry b Doram     37
K Joseph run out    0
E Lett c wkp Parris b Doram     33
A Hosein lbw b Cornwall     16
S Lara b Hanley     16
S Katwaroo run out     66
D Davis c and b Cornwall    2
I Mohammed c Webbe b Doram     18
S Sooklal run out    10
P Williams b Audain    6
J Ali not out    8
Extras (lb9, w7, nb9)     25
TOTAL (all out, 50 overs)     237
Wkts at: 1–0, 2–85, 3–86, 4–114, 5–121, 6–130, 7–184, 8–202, 9–222, 10–237
Bowling: Henry 10–1–41–0, Archibald 5–1–38–0, Cornwall 10–1–33–2, Hanley 10–2–36–1, Doram 10–0–42–3, Mintos 3–0–20–0, Audain 2–0–18–1

LEEWARDS
S Martina c wkp Katwaroo b Lett     49
L Audain lbw b Sooklal    0
D Webbe c Davis b Ali     25
A Saunder c Hosein b Lett    0
R Cornwall c Ali b Williams     18
W Mintos b Lett    1
N Henry st Katwroo b Lett    4
T Hanley c Hosein b Lett     23
D Doram c Hosein b Sooklal    8
+D Parris lbw b Williams    1
Chival Archibald not out    1
Extras (lb1, w7, nb3)     11
TOTAL (all out, 35.5 overs)     141
Wkts at: 1–1, 2–75, 3–75, 4–82, 5–83, 6–91, 7–115, 8–135, 9–139, 10–141.
Bowling: Sooklal 8.5–0–36–2, Williams 6–0–34–2, Mohammed 5–1–20–0, Davis 6–1–21–0, Lett 8–1–21–5, Ali 2–0–8–1.
Result: T&T won by 96 runs
Points: T&T 5.4, Leewards 0.
Toss: T&T.
Umpires: C Alfred, V Smith.