Naz Ya­coob

Kissoon­dath Ma­gram, 16-year-old right-arm leg spin­ner pro­duced a mag­i­cal spell of bowl­ing which helped T&T to se­cure a com­pre­hen­sive six-wick­et win against the Wind­ward Is­lands in a Round Four con­test of the TCL Group West In­dies Un­der-19 Chal­lenge lim­it­ed overs com­pe­ti­tion, yes­ter­day, at Sabi­na Park.

The win al­lowed T&T to re­main in the reck­on­ing to re­tain their lim­it­ed overs ti­tle, pro­vid­ing the four-match win­ning streak of the Ja­maicans is snapped by Bar­ba­dos in the fi­nal round to­day at Sabi­na Park. In the event that T&T beats Guyana and Bar­ba­dos whips Ja­maica then net run rate will de­ter­mine the win­ner. Ma­gram bagged five for 20 to de­stroy the Wind­wards' frag­ile bat­ting line-up as the op­po­si­tion was dis­missed for a pal­try 98 in 37.2 overs. He was well sup­port­ed by left-arm spin­ner Javed Boodram who picked up two for sev­en from 2.2 overs.

It was Ma­gram's first five wick­et-haul in the lim­it­ed overs se­ries, which en­hanced his chances for se­lec­tion on the West In­dies team for next year's youth World Cup in New Zealand. For his tremen­dous feat, Ma­gram copped the 'Play­er of the Match' award. On­ly Den­nis Smith of­fered re­sis­tance for the Wind­wards with a pain-stak­ing 33 off 71 balls with one four. Hu­bert Joseph was the on­ly oth­er bats­man to reach dou­ble fig­ures with 16.

In re­sponse, T&T reached their tar­get in 36.3 overs, with Evin Lewis hit­ting 45 in 69 balls with one four and two six­es to lead the vic­to­ry charge. Ear­li­er, Joseph and Smith opened the bat­ting for the Wind­wards and de­fied the T&T bowl­ing at­tack for 18 overs, with sheer grit and de­ter­mi­na­tion.

Their part­ner­ship of 43 was the high­est for any open­ing stand against T&T in this year's lim­it­ed overs se­ries.

They were even­tu­al­ly part­ed when Joseph (16) was caught at mid-wick­et by Yan­nick Ot­t­ley off Ma­gram's bowl­ing. It was the start of things to come for the T&T bowlers as short­ly af­ter KaveemHodge (1) was bril­liant­ly stumped by wick­et­keep­er Rick­son Mani­ram from the bowl­ing off Ot­t­ley, as the Wind­wards slipped to 51 for two. Ma­gram said he was pleased with his over­all per­for­mance in the two tour­na­ments. He said that he felt elat­ed at tak­ing a five-wick­et-haul at the Test venue.

"It is was al­ways nice to pick-up a five-wick­et-haul in your first match at a Test venue. Skip­per Yan­nick Ot­t­ley placed a lot of con­fi­dence in me and I re­paid him with this vic­to­ry. I was not bowl­ing well in the first few match­es of the lim­it­ed overs se­ries, but my coach (Kelvin Williams) told me that I am not bowl­ing to my true po­ten­tial and I must de­liv­er in this game,which I did," Ma­gram told the T&T Guardian yes­ter­day. T&T will bat­tle Guyana to­day at Elle­ston Road, Ja­maica and Bar­ba­dos will square-off at Sabi­na Park. Lee­wards and Wind­wards will go at each oth­er at Up-Park Camp.