The highly touted T&T Red Force batting line-up finally clicked yesterday as the team tallied 318 for nine wickets in its 50 overs against the Windies B team during the teams' fourth round match of the CWI Super50 Tournament at the Queen's Park Oval, Port-of-Spain.
Batting first the Red Force batsmen finally found form with a number of them catching the eye with good batting display. None was better than the returning Jason Mohammed who slapped 83 off 90 deliveries with six fours and four sixes. Opener Lendl Simmons batted well and scored a run-a-ball 75 laced with 13 fours.
He and Mohammed added 105 runs for the second wicket off 19 overs, after the early loss of Kyle Hope. When Simmons left with the score at 122 for two after 23 overs, skipper Denesh Ramdin came in and scored a polished 55 in adding a further 102 runs for the third wicket with Mohammed.
Ramdin's runs came off 66 balls with four fours and one six.
After this, there were two cameos from Dwayne Bravo and Keiron Pollard. Bravo struck 21 off 20 balls with two sixes, while Pollard made 30 runs off 12 balls with four sixes. The pick of the bowlers for the opposition was T&T's Bryan Charles who took 3/48 off his 10-over-allotment. There were also two wickets apiece for Alzari Joseph and Chemar Holder.
Up to press time, the Windies B was relying on 38 runs for one wicket after seven overs. Bravo removed Kimani Melius for nine. T&T's Keagan Simmons was battling on 27 and Kirstan Kallicharan one.
Down at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy, Guyana Jaguars were in a dominant position against defending champions Windward Islands. Batting first, Jaguars made 231 all out with one over to go in their 50. The Windwards were 103 for six wickets after 26 overs in reply.
Guyana got a 121-run stand between Trevon Griffith 64 and Shurfane Rutherford 69. The Windwards fought back well despite 29 from Chris Barnwell and 28 from Raymond Reifer. The best of the Windwards bowlers was Larry Edwards with 4/34. The veteran Shane Shillingford took 3/47 as well. Guyana bowlers Veerasammy Permaul and Ricardo Adams then struck back with two wickets apiece to cripple the Windwards reply.
