Narine stars with bat, ball as QPCC advances to finals

On Monday night, Sunil Narine came to the rescue of T&T with the bat, and on Thursday night it was the same story as he scored an unbeaten 38 after snaring five wickets to take Queen’s Park to victory over Merryboys and into the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB) Sunday league finals.

A good crowd was on hand at the UWI SPEC ground to see Narine underline his reputation as a useful lower order batsman. After his guile had bemused the Merryboys team and restricted them to 258 all out, Narine’s team was in danger of losing the match at 171 for seven when he joined Jonathan Augustus at the crease.

The two batted well, taking the attack to the Merryboys bowlers and added an unbeaten 85 runs for the eighth wicket to take the defending champions home at 259 for seven with nine balls remaining. 

Chasing a good total for victory, most of the Queen’s Park batsmen got starts but could not carry on. Skipper Justin Guillen was quick out the blocks but was stopped at 21. Fellow opener Adrian Barath again set up stall for a long knock but his innings ended at 35. Petrock Nicholas (18), Dwayne Bravo (19) and Kieron Pollard (28) all got in but was sent packing before they could have made any significant change. However, Narine would prove to be the perfect foil for the former West Indies Under-19 batsman Augustus and the win was achieved quite easily in the end. 

Earlier, Lendl Simmons anchored the Merryboys innings at the top of the order and they were able to post a handy score for the bowlers to defend. Simmons struck 46 and was able to put Merryboys into a position of strength together with Aaron Alfred after losing Mario Belcon (21) early on. The duo posted 93 runs for the second wicket and Alfred took the attack to the Oval Boys while Simmons played solidly at the other end. When Alfred left for 60, wickets started to tumble and it took a valiant effort from Rayad Emrit in the end to carry Merryboys past the 250-run mark. He ended with a well played 44 in his first knock for Merryboys since his move from T&TEC. 

Narine was the chief architect of Merryboys’ demise with 5/34 off 9.4 overs, while fellow off-spinner Amit Jaggernauth took 2/42. With the win, Queen’s Park marches on to meet PowerGen in the finals on March 28.

SCOREBOARD

Merryboys vs QPCC
Merryboys inns
L Simmons c J Guillen b A Jaggernauth    46
M Belcon lbw b S Narine    21
A Alfred c J Augustus b A Jaggernauth    60
A Holder b D Bravo    29
A Alvarez c A Jaggernauth b S Narine    21
B Christmas c wkpr A Balgobin b S Narine    3
M Richards run out    9 
R Emrit c D Bravo b S Narine    44
A Allert b S Narine    6
K Singh run out    0
J Ramdhanie not out    0
Extras  b2 lb9 w8    19
Total all out (49.4)    258
Fall of wkts: 33, 126, 149, 180, 189, 189, 224, 243, 243, 258.
Bowling: D Bravo 10-1-48-1, D Cruickshank 6-0-38-0, S Narine 9.4-0-34-5, A Hosein 8-0-37-0, A Jaggernauth 10-0-42-2, K Pollard 6-0-48-0

QPCC inns 
Justin Guillen b Marlon Richards    21
Adrian Barath c wkpr A Alfred b Rayad Emrit    35
Petrock Nicholas c R Emrit b Alcindo Holder    18
Dwayne Bravo c M Richards b Rayad Emrit    19
Akeal Hosein run out    12
Kieron Pollard b Marlon Richards    28
Jonathan Augustus not out    55
Daron Cruickshank c A Allert b Alcindo Holder    8
Sunil Narine not out    38
Extras lb3, w22    25
Total for 7 wkts (48.3)    259
Fall of wkts: 48, 83, 85, 112, 142, 148, 174.
Bowling: A Alert 6-0-42-0, M Richards 10-0-43-2, J Ramdhanie 10-1-40-0, R Emir 9.3-0-56-2, A Holder 9-0-53-2, K Singh 4-0-22-0
Result: QPCC won by 3 wkts