“No Bra­vo, no prob­lem!”

Reign­ing cham­pi­ons San­ta Cruz Sports opened their de­fence of the North Zone T20 Fes­ti­val with a six-wick­et win over Barataria Ball Play­ers at the Diego Mar­tin Re­gion­al Sports Com­plex on Wednes­day evening.

Last year, led by Dar­ren Bra­vo, who re­turned to his boy­hood club from Queen’s Park Crick­et Club (QPCC), they won the T20 Fes­ti­val at the Diego Mar­tin venue.

Ballplay­ers were sent in to bat first and got a 61-run part­ner­ship be­tween Clifton Halls (62) and Dex­ter Sween (16) be­fore the wick­et of Sween in the fifth over.

De­journ Charles strode in­to the wick­et and made things worse for the San­ta Cruz bowlers. The tall all-rounder struck six six­es and on­ly one four in his 53 from 27 balls.

To­geth­er, Charles and Halls took the score from 61 for one and took it to 144 for two in the 14th over as they kept the run rate above ten runs per over.

Af­ter the dis­missal of Charles at 144 and Halls at 158 for 3, the Barataria run rate dipped un­der ten, and they closed on 190 for six in their 20 overs.

Shaquille John was the best San­ta Cruz bowler with two for 50.

In their re­ply, San­ta Cruz Sports, in pur­suit of 191 to win, start­ed on the back foot with the dis­missal of De­von Sween for one, on­ly four balls in­to the in­nings.

Kash­mir Mitchell joined Ryan Year­wood in the mid­dle, and they took the score to 66 for two. That was when Mitchell took his leave for 41. Two balls lat­er, Sween took the sec­ond wick­et in the over, re­mov­ing Ryan Year­wood, and San­ta Cruz slipped to 67 for three.

Af­ter hit­ting the ‘bump’, San­ta Cruz got back on track, and Bri­an Year­wood (43) and Chae­don Ray­mond (58 not out).

That in­nings en­abled the cham­pi­ons to get to the fin­ish line de­spite los­ing Year­wood at 152 for four. Alvin Smith was on 13 not out when Santra Cruz got to 193 for four to win by six wick­ets.

Scores:

Barataria Ball Play­ers 190 /6 (Clifton Halls 62, De­journ Charles 53; Shaquille John 2-50) vs San­ta Cruz 193 /4 (Chae­don Ray­mond 58 not out, Bri­an Year­wood 43; Dex­ter Sween 2-38).

San­ta Cruz won by 6 wick­ets.