South Pavers will battle North Masqueraders for the inaugural Namalco Under-23 title tomorrow and not Central Flamingoes as was previously thought.
The final round of matches were washed out on Wednesday evening and according to the official standings, South finished on top of the standings and Central Flamingoes were second. South finished with five points and played unbeaten over the three rounds of matches, while Central and North each finished with three points with one win, one loss and a no-result each. Central got the edge as they had enjoyed a better net run rate.
However, the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB) informed yesterday that they were not using the net run rate method and were instead going along with the same tie-breakers Cricket West Indies CWI used for the recently-concluded Colonial Medical Insurance Cup. This method separated the teams by the head-to-head clash and hence North, by virtue of defeating Central in the preliminary round, moved ahead of them in the standings and secured a place in the finals.
This was confirmed by TTCB president Azim Bassarath, who said this was the method adopted by TTCB cricket operations manager Dudnath Ramkeesoon.
Tomorrow’s final will get underway at 2 pm at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba.
FINAL STANDINGS
Team P W L NR PTS NRR
South Pavers 3 2 0 1 5 0.27
North Masqueraders 3 1 1 1 3 -0.08
Central Flamingoes 3 1 1 1 3 0.14
East Leatherbacks 3 0 2 1 1 -0.35