Fans hoping to make a Friday evening lime at the Queen's Park Oval, had to divert to other venues and plans, as the red hot T&T Red Force finished off the ICC Americas in quick fashion in their 2016 Nagico Super50 clash.
The massive win ensures that the T&T team finishes atop the standings in Group A with 22 points and will now face the second placed team from Group B, in the semifinals next Wednesday at the Queen's Park Oval.
However, before that Team T&T will have a game of academic interest to them, but huge interest to Barbados tomorrow at the Queen's Park Oval. The Barbadians easily took care of the Jamaican Scorpions at the National Cricket Centre (NCC) in Couva yesterday and will need to defeat the Red Force emphatically to gain a bonus point to push Jamaica out. The Jamaicans will play the ICC Americas tomorrow at the NCC and they are expected to take care of the minnows.
The Americas showed no fight against the Red Force, who rattled them for just 81 runs. The home team hardly broke sweat, as they rushed to victory at 84 for one off 12.5 overs.
Kyle Hope, their overseas player, continued his impressive run with a quick 40, in an opening partnership of 59 with Kjorn Ottley. The Barbadian faced just 27 balls, hitting seven fours and a six. When the victory came, Ottley was unbeaten on 24 off 37 deliveries with three fours and a six. Denesh Ramdin back from West Indies duties got a knock and made 18 not out off 13 balls with four fours.
Earlier, the ICC Americas won the toss and as has been their strategy in this tournament thus far, decided to take first strike. With minutes of the umpires calling play, they must have rued that decision, as there was a constant march to and from the pitch by the Americas batsmen.
All rounder Rayad Emrit scalped two of the tourists early and they never recovered.
The only man to show some fight was Srimantha Wijeratne, who notched 30 off 39 balls with five fours.
The former Sri Lankan Under-19 player showed some quality but was outfoxed by the wily Imran Khan playing his first game. The Comets leg-spinner who has been very prolific in the PCL First Class series continued his impressive ways and grabbed 4/24.
Emrit finished with 2/19 and spinner Akeal Hosein 2/6.
SCOREBOARD
Red Force vs ICC Americas
ICC Americas inns
S Taylor c Katwaroo b Emrit 3
A Dodson c Hope b Richards 11
N Kumar c Ottley b Emrit 2
S Wijeratne lbw Khan 30
A Amsterdam lbw Deonarine 5
N Dhaliwal c & b Khan 1
H Tariq c & b Hosein 6
T Allen st Katwaroo b Khan 22
M Gous c K Ottley b Khan 0
D Ahmed c Y Ottley b Hosein 1
J Gordon not out 1
Extras 1lb, 1w 2
Total all out (26ovs) 81
Fall of wkts: 3, 10, 24, 49, 49, 50, 57, 59, 71, 81.
Bowling: R Emrit 6-1-19-2, N Deonarine 8-1-13-1, M Richards 4-0-17-1, I Khan 5-1-25-4, A Hosein 3-0-6-2.
Red Force inns
K Ottley not out 24
K Hope b Ahmed 40
D Ramdin not out 18
Extras 2w 2
Total for 1 wkt (12.5ovs) 84
Fall of wkts: 59.
Bowling: T Allen 1-0-15-0, M Gous 3.5-0-29-0, J Gordon 2-0-9-0, D Ahmed 3-1-13-1, N Kumar 2-0-13-0, S Taylor 1-0-5-0.
Result: Red Force won by 9 wkts.
Man of the match: Imran Khan.
Jaguars beat Hurricanes by seven wickets
BASSETERRE–Guyana Jaguars defeated Leeward Islands Hurricanes by seven wickets in their fifth round game of the Regional Super50 at the St Paul's Sports Complex yesterday.
SCORES:
HURRICANES 172 all out off 49.4 overs (Rahkeem Cornwall 35, Chesney Hughes 33; Romario Shepherd 3-37, Raymon Reifer 2-47) vs JAGUARS 174 for three off 46.2 overs (Shiv Chanderpaul 57 not out, Vishaul Singh 44, Assad Fudadin 27)
Pride beat Scorpions by 73 runs
COUVA–Barbados Pride defeated Jamaica Scorpions by 73 runs in their fifth round game of the Regional Super50 at the National Cricket Centre yesterday.
SCORES:
PRIDE 246 for nine (Dwayne Smith 86, Shane Dowrich 48, Ashley Nurse 23; John Campbell 3-57, Jerome Taylor 2-30) vs SCORPIONS 173 all out off 46.5 overs (John Campbell 42, Andre McCarthy 33, Jermaine Harrison 22; Jonathan Carter 3-26, Jomel Warrican 3-32, Sulieman Benn 2-26, Ashley Nurse 2-36) (CMC)
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