Cap­tain Ja­cen Agard set­tled de­fend­ing cham­pi­on Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege San Fer­nan­do nerves with 17 not out in a close two-wick­et win over ri­val Na­pari­ma Col­lege in the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion of the Pow­er­gen Sec­ondary Schools Crick­et League (SS­CL) on Tues­day.

In a low-scor­ing match at Lewis Street in San Fer­nan­do, where on­ly 165 runs were scored across two in­nings, "Naps" chose to bat first and im­me­di­ate­ly Aid­i­an Racha re­moved Omanan De­op­er­sad for one with on­ly five runs on the board.

Ja­cen Agard, who was part of T&T Red Force tri­al match­es for last year’s Su­per 50, trapped Amit Chan in front of the crease, the left-arm pace bring­ing the ball back in­to the right-hand­ed bats­man. At that point, it was 10/2 with both open­ers gone for one each.

Na­pari­ma was cer­tain­ly in for a hard time as the Pre­sen­ta­tion's spin­ners made life hard for the Na­pari­ma bats­men. Na­tion­al Un­der-15 cap­tain Bren­dan Boodoo had fig­ures of ten overs, three wick­ets for a miser­ly 15 runs as runs were more scarce than sor­rel in June. The leg spin­ner was backed up by fel­low spin­ner Aidan Batchas­ingh, who took two for 27 from nine overs.

Ste­fan Kat­wa­roo watched from the non-strik­er’s end as he lost part­ner af­ter part­ner while he made 21. He was eighth out at 62. ‘Naps’ even­tu­al­ly made 82 all out in 38.2 overs, not the score­card they want­ed.

In re­ply, Riyaad Mo­hammed looked com­fort­able. He had al­ready count­ed two six­es and two fours as "Pres" reached 39 be­fore they lost their first wick­et, Aa­di Ram­saran for 13. That trig­gered a mi­ni col­lapse as Pre­sen­ta­tion lost five wick­ets in the space of four runs and was re­duced to 43 for five, in­clud­ing the wick­et of last sea­son’s best bats­man, Mo­hammed for a top score of 26.

Just as Pre­sen­ta­tion’s wheels were start­ing to fall loose, Agard tight­ened the axle and guid­ed the team to vic­to­ry, as he scored an un­beat­en 17 as the reign­ing cham­pi­on scored 83 for 8 in 18.4 overs.

Open­er Jay­den Joseph scored the first hun­dred in the new sea­son of the SS­CL. Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege Ch­agua­nas scored a 172-run win away to Hillview Col­lege at Hon­ey­moon Park in Tu­na­puna.

It didn’t take long for the sea­son’s first cen­tu­ry to for­malise as Joseph struck sev­en six­es and sev­en fours in his score of 108 runs off 126 balls.

“Pres” was sent in to bat first and got a 64-run open­ing stand be­tween Joseph and Justin Ja­gas­sar who scored 25.

The fall of Ja­gas­sar’s wick­et brought Luke Ali to the mid­dle and to­geth­er they put on 158 for the sec­ond wick­et. Ali scored a watch­ful 56 from 89 balls that in­clud­ed five fours.

Joseph brought up his hun­dred with a four in the 44th over, hit­ting Jor­dan Pryce to the ropes. At that point, he faced 119 balls and hit sev­en max­i­mums and sev­en fours.

Last year’s run­ner-up even­tu­al­ly closed on 278 for sev­en from their 50 overs. Ex­tras ac­count­ed for 50 runs, 43 of them be­ing wides. An­dre Sug­lal took three for 31 and Re­nal­do Fournil­li­er took three for 52 as Hillview’s best bowlers.

In re­ply, Hillview was bowled out for 106 in 35.2 overs. Adesh Singh was the on­ly bats­man to make any score of note with 39, while Aneal Rooplal took four for 14.

SUM­MARISED SCORES

At El Do­ra­do:

EL DO­RA­DO EAST SEC 59 (22.2 overs) (Justin Ram­cha­ran 31; Za­meer Ali 10; Ar­shad Har­ri­lal 5-8; Jaden O’Brien 3-12) vs ST MARY’S 60 for 3 (7.3 overs) (Rahul Lakhan 27, Jesse Sook­wah 13 not out; Justin Ram­char­ran 1-23; Je­re­mi­ah Vil­laroel 1-22). St Mary’s Col­lege won by 7 wick­ets.

At Lewis Street:

NA­PARI­MA 82 (38.2 overs) (Ste­fan Kat­wa­roo 21; Os­han Gob­in 13; Bren­dan Boodoo 3-15; Ja­cen Agard 2-8) vs PRE­SEN­TA­TION SAN FER­NAN­DO 83 for 8 (18.4 overs) (Riyaad Mo­hammed 26; Ja­cen Agard 17 not out; Aar­i­on Mo­hammed 4-25; Os­han Gob­in 3-24). Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege San Fer­nan­do won by 2 wick­ets.

At Hon­ey­moon Park:

PRE­SEN­TA­TION CH­AGUA­NAS 278 for 7 (48 overs) (Jay­den Joseph 108; Luke Ali 56; An­dre Sug­lal 3-31; Re­nal­do Fournil­li­er 3-52) vs HILLVIEW 106 (35.2) (Adesh Singh 39; Qadeer Ju­man 13; Aneal Rooplal 4-14). Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege Ch­agua­nas won by 172 runs.

At Fa­ti­ma Grounds:

FA­TI­MA 257 for 8 (50 overs) (Nail Main­got 64; Adri­an Ma­hase 60; Zachary Siewah 57; Seer­aj 2-29; Har­riper­sad 2-32; Josh Tele­maque 2-36) vs St Bene­dict’s Col­lege 106 (28.5 overs) ( S Har­riper­sad 26; Caiden Mack 4-36;Adri­an Ma­hase 3-32). Fa­ti­ma won by 149 runs.

At Bam­boo:

VISH­NU BOYS 243 for 8 (Aidan Lakhans­ingh 66; An­dre Ram­baran 41; Ganesh Gob­in 3-39) vs PRINCES TOWN WEST 76 (Ker­shon Charles 22; Aid­i­an Lack­hans­ingh 4-25; Ish­mael Ali 3-15). Vish­nu Boys won by 168 runs.