Vin­ode Mam­chan

Na­tion­al play­er William Perkins struck a whirl­wind 69 to take his team Moo­sai Sports to a six-wick­et vic­to­ry over Mer­ry­boys and $50,000 for their third place fin­ish in the Na­tion­al T20 crick­et se­ries last night at Guaracara Park in Pointe-a-Pierre.Chas­ing a com­pet­i­tive 148 for vic­to­ry af­ter Rayad Em­rit's 44 had tak­en Mer­ry­boys to 147 all out in 20 overs, Moo­sai got a won­der­ful open­ing stand of 79 in just 10 overs from Perkins and Kjorn Ot­t­ley. Perkins was ag­gres­sive from go, while Ot­t­ley played sec­ond fid­dle to good ef­fect. The two were aid­ed by some poor field­ing from the Pat­na Boys.

Ot­t­ley fell for a run-a-ball 27 and Perkins fol­lowed for 69 that came off 48 balls with three fours and five six­es. Any thoughts Mer­ry­boys had of get­ting back in­to the game af­ter their dis­missals was quick­ly dis­si­pat­ed by Jee­tendra Sookdeo who scored 39 not out off 25 balls with three six­es and a four.Ear­li­er, Mer­ry­boys got their even­tu­al score of 147 all out in 20 overs, thanks to a face-sav­ing sixth-wick­et part­ner­ship of 70 runs be­tween skip­per Em­rit and mid­dle or­der bats­man Bri­an Christ­mas. The Pat­na boys had an ex­plo­sive start with Mario Bel­con hit­ting Mervyn Dil­lon for suc­ces­sive six­es off the first two balls of the in­nings. Guyanese Shem­roy Bar­ring­ton al­so got in­to the act with a beau­ti­ful cov­er, how­ev­er it was not a sign of things to come as the East­ern­ers struck back hard to re­duce Mer­ry­boys to 53 for five.

With Em­rit play­ing the lead role, Christ­mas bat­ted around him and al­so played some gems of his own. One ex­tra cov­er dri­ve, lean­ing back­wards caught the eye as the two brought their team back in­to the match. Em­rit would re­mem­ber for a long time his pull off pac­er Navin Stew­art that land­ed just on the roof of the main stand. The two took the score to 123 and with balls run­ning out the ag­gres­sion in­creased, and as is al­ways the case the wick­ets fell. Christ­mas went for 28 off 32 balls and his dis­missal led to a col­lapse that saw Mer­ry­boys fall for 147.Em­rit was out­foxed by Dil­lon who bowled around his legs off a slow­er de­liv­ery for 44 but the skip­per could have tak­en a bow as he brought his boys back from the brink. In all Em­rit faced 34 balls and struck three fours and two six­es. Dil­lon came back well af­ter his ear­ly ham­mer­ing to end with 4/29.

Scores

Mer­ry Boys 147 all out (20) (Rayad Em­rit 44, Bri­an Christ­mas 28, Shem­roy Bar­ring­ton 23, Mario Bel­con 17, Mervyn Dil­lon 4/29) vs Moo­sai Sports 148/4 (19.4)(Willam Perkins 69, Jee­tendra Sookdeo 39no, Kjorn Ot­t­ley 27, Rayad Em­rit 2/28, Al­cin­do Hold­er 2/22) � Moo­sai Sports won by 6 wk­ts