T&T’s youth cricketers fell to a narrow two-run defeat at the hands of Jamaica in the third round of matches of the Cricket West Indies Under-17 tournament at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy (BLCA) in Tarouba yesterday.
Rain hit all three matches yesterday but didn’t ruin them altogether.
At the BLCA, T&T won the toss and asked the Jamaicans to bat first.
O’Neil Roberts then hit an unbeaten 65 to hold his team together after they were left reeling at 31 for three after 12 overs. Roberts faced 116 balls in his knock and hit five boundaries and three sixes.
With the match delicately placed at 127 for four after 36 overs, the rains came down to force a pause to proceedings. By the time it relented in south Trinidad, the umpires called time on the innings and T&T had to score 135 runs from the same number of overs to win the game under the Duckworth Lewis system.
The hosts’ chase got off to a bad start when opener Kyle Roopchand was out without scoring. But fellow opener Jeremiah Cruickshank got a good start, scoring 34 runs. However, T&T lost wickets at regular intervals during their run chase. Rajeev Ramnath tried holding the innings together with a knock of 46. His knock was a patient one, coming from 72 balls and including four boundaries. However, he fell at a crucial time when T&T still needed 18 runs for victory from 20 balls and the tailenders could not deliver the points. They needed six runs off the last over and just couldn’t get the ball away.
This was T&T’s first loss in three matches in the competition.
At Gilbert Park, the match was reduced to a 25-over affair between the Windward Islands and Guyana. After being put in to bat first, the Windwards were reduced to 125 for six before the rains came. Captain Akeem Auguste top-scored for his side with 38. Marvan Prashad was the pick of the bowlers for Guyana with figures of four for 20.
In response, Guyana struggled in its run chase, only getting to 65 for seven before they ran out of overs. Tyran Theodore led the destruction for the Windwards with four for 13.
At the National Cricket Centre, Barbados got to 54 for two from 14 overs against the Leeward Islands before the entire match was lost to rain.
Summarised Scores
At BLCA
JAMAICA 127-4 (36) (O.Roberts 65*; S.Sankar 2/29) v T&T 132 (36 DL) (R.Ramnath 46, J.Cruickshank 34)
Result: Jamaica won by two runs
At Gilbert Park
WINDWARDS 126-6 (25) (A.Auguste 38, D.Joseph 31. M.Prashad 4/20) v GUYANA 65-7 (25 ov) (C Balgobin 27*, T Theodore 4/13)
Result: Windwards won by 84 runs
At NCC
BARBADOS 54-2 (14 ov) v LEEWARD IS.
Result: Match abandoned due to rain
T&T’s results thus far:
T&T bt Guyana by nine wickets
T&T bt Leewards by six runs
T&T lost to Jamaica by three runs