Dwayne Smith silenced 10,000 fans at the Queen's Park Oval in Port-of-Spain, last evening, with a brutal 83, to lead Barbados to a very competitive 252 all out, batting first against T&T in the final of the Nagico Super50 cricket tournament.The hurricane opener blasted everything out of sight after Barbados won the toss and decided to take first strike. On a good batting strip, the right-hander got an early reprieve when Evin Lewis put him down at square leg at 22 and went on to punish Dwayne Bravo's men.He and the obdurate Kraigg Brathwaite posted 127 runs for the first wicket in 22.3 overs before being parted. In the process, they beat the best opening stand for Barbados against T&T in limited overs cricket. The previous best was 102 between Dale Richards and Patrick Browne.
The crowd was very quiet for the most part and every good piece of fielding was met with deafening noise, as that was all they had to celebrate.Part-timer Lendl Simmons would give them their first real cheer as he sent back Brathwaite for 36, made off 63 balls with three fours. He would then follow up with the "big fish" Smith for 83 and from that point it was all T&T. Smith's attractive innings spanned 77 balls in which time he struck ten fours and two sixes.At the fall of his wicket with the score 132, the next best Barbados batsman, Jonathan Carter, arrived to continue the good work. An excellent worker of the ball, the left-hander progressed to 49 without any fanfare, before he fell leg before to the brilliant Sunil Narine.
When Carter left after striking five fours off 51 balls, Barbados endured a terrible collapse that brought the fans to their feet. They lost six wickets for 23 runs in the midst of excellent bowling by Narine, Kevon Cooper and Yannick Ottley.Cooper would end as the leading wicket taker with 4/62 but the best of the bowlers was Narine who picked 2/18 off ten impressive overs.Red Force was stuttering in its reply, losing openers Simmons (19), Evin Lewis (27), Yannick Ottley (0), captain Dwayne Bravo (6) and his brother Darren Bravo (17) to be 105-5. The final score for T&T was 235 all out.(See full story in tomorrow's Guardian)
Scoreboard
T&T VS BARBADOS
Barbados inns
D Smith
c DJ Bravo b Simmons 83
K Brathwaite
c Ramdin b Simmons 36
J Carter lbw Narine 49
K Stoute b Cooper 15
C Brathwaite b Cooper 9
K Williams c & b Ottley 1
S Dowrich lbw Cooper 1
A Nurse b Rampaul 11
J Holder lbw Narine 5
S Benn not out 22
F Edwards b Cooper 1
Extras 7lb, 11w, 1nb 19
Total all out 252
Fall of wkts: 127, 132, 195, 206, 207, 210, 210, 218, 241, 252.
Bowling: D Bravo 5-0-40-0, R Rampaul 6-0-25-1, R Emrit 5-0-41-0, S Narine 10-2-18-2, K Cooper 9.4-0-62-4, Y Ottley 4-0-18-1, L Simmons 5-0-23-2, J Mohammed 4-0-18-0.