Valiants produced a very clinical display to take care of Queen's Park II in the semifinals of the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB) Championship T20 semifinals at Guaracara Park, last evening.
The La Romaine boys made the southern fans very happy on the night as they took care of the more fancied Queen's Park. They chased down Queen's Park II's score of 111/9 with relative ease and when the winning runs came the score read 112/3 off 18.1 overs.
After losing an early wicket in their chase, Valiants number three batsman Chris Patia took matters into his own hands and scored an unbeaten 45 not out and together with former Wanderers player David Livingston (25 not out) took his team home. Also among the runs was Devon Nelson who got 26. The Parkite bowlers failed to make an impression on a pitch that was starting to play slow and low and Valiants thoroughly deserved their win. They will now play Tableland for the Championship T20 title today, also at Guaracara Park.
Earlier, Queen's Park II, batting first would have expected a better score than their eventual 111 for nine after their 20 overs.
Much would have depended on national opener Jeremy Solozano but after he fell for three, Valiants had their tails up and never let up from that point. Dwight Joseph played a solid hand off 22 from 25 balls and at one point he took his team to a position where they could have launched an assault in the final eight overs. However, it was not to be.
At 67 for one, Charles fell, and in the space of 13 runs five other men followed him back to the hut. Queen's Park II slipped to 80 for seven and from that point their eventual score would have always been inadequate.
Championship T20 scores
QPCC II 111/9 (20) (Dwight Joseph 22, Magnum Nanan 2/17) vs Valiants 112/3 (18.1) (Chris Patia 45 n.o., David Livingston 25 n.o., Devon Nelson 26, Israel Canning 2/26). Valiants won by 7 wkts.