Lewis century puts T&T on top

T&T opener Evin Lewis continued his magnificent form, scoring a century to lead T&T into a powerful position against Canada at the end of the first day of their three-day clash at the National Cricket Centre (NCC) in Couva yesterday.

Canada was 135 all out versus T&T’s 194/3.

After bowling out the Canadians for a paltry 135, the T&T boys, on the back of a century from Lewis and a half century from Justin Guillen, finished the day on 194 for three—for a lead of 59 runs. Lewis and Guillen looked in prime form and while the duo were batting the small crowd at the NCC was in joyful mood.

The left handers reached the boundaries 27 times combined during their knocks. Guillen as usual was quick off the blocks and stamped his class over the visitors. Lewis on the other end joined in and the boundaries started to flow. 

The two put on 130 runs in just 21 overs and when Guillen left the home team was already in control.

The Queen’s Park captain slammed 58 off 70 balls in 104 minutes with eight fours. Lewis, despite the quick loss of Marlon Barclay (4), motored on and in partnership with Jason Mohammed brought up his century.

He was finally dismissed for 101 off just 95 balls in 182 minutes. He had a high percentage of boundaries in his knock and in all struck 19 of them. His innings would have given the T&T team a lot of heart, with the regional series just a few weeks away.

At the end of the day, Mohammed was not out on 25 and skipper Denesh Ramdin one.

Earlier, Canada won the toss and decided to take first strike and openers Hiral Patel and Ruvindu Gunasekera batted well in posting 36 for the first wicket. 

However, Shannon Gabriel, bowling at good pace, uprooted the stumps of Patel for 17 with a yorker and this led to a spectacular collapse that saw the score reach 37 for three within minutes.

Gabriel followed with the wicket of Gunasekera and spinner Kavesh Kantasingh then got into the act with a double strike and from that point the Canadians could not recover. 

Towards the end of the innings, Tariq Hamza 17 and Junaid Siddiqui 34 took the score past the 100-run mark, as Canada closed on 135 all out. Gabriel finished with 3/35, while Kantasingh took 2/14, spinner Imran Khan 2/38 and Yannick Cariah two wickets for no run.

Play continues today from 10am. 

Scoreboard

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SCOREBOARD

T&T vs Canada
Canada inns
H Patel b Gabriel    17
R Gunasekera c Ramdin b Gabriel    19
U Limbada lbw Kantasingh    1
A Hansra b Kantasingh    7
N Kumar c Jaggernauth b Khan    22
D Daesrath c Gabriel b Jaggernauth    2
R Cheema c Barclay b Khan    0
T Hamza c Jaggernauth Gabriel    17
J Siddiqui c Kantasingh b Cariah    34
M Aulakh lbw Cariah    10
R Pathan not out    0
Extras b4, lb1, nb1    6
Total all out    135
Fall of wkts: 36, 37, 37, 62, 73, 73, 73, 111, 135, 135.
Bowling: S Gabriel 9–1–35–3, R Emrit 6–1–29–0, K Kantasingh 10–3–14–2, A Jaggernauth 9–3–14–1, I Khan 10–0–38–2, Y Cariah 4–0–0–2.

T&T inns
J Guillen c Daesrath b Siddiqui    58
E Lewis c Patel b Siddiqui    101
M Barclay lbw Hansra    4
J Mohammed not out    25
D Ramdin not out    1
Extras b2, nb2, w1    5
Total for 3 wkts    194
Fall of wkts: 130, 155, 193.
Bowling: J Gordon 8–0–44–0, M Aulakh 1–0–6–0, A Hansra 8–3–20–1, R Pathan 4–0–30–0, J Siddiqui 8–1–44–2, H Patel 4–0–14–0.