Title-holders Central Zone will face South East in a replay of last year’s final for the 2020 Scotiabank NexGen Under-15 crown tomorrow at the National Cricket Centre Ground in Balmain, Couva.
In last week’s semifinals, Central defeated North Zone by 53 runs and South East swept past East by four wickets to earn themselves a place in the championship match, which will be a 50-over contest starting from 9.30 am.
Central Zone will start as overwhelming favourites, having played unbeaten so far in the tournament and also having beaten South East in a first-round group match of this year’s competition.
Led by a boundary-studded top score of 68 by captain Luke Ali, Central Zone posted 182 for seven in their allotted 50 overs in the semis with useful contributions from Adrian Mahase (30), Fareez Ali (20) and Kevin Maharaj (14 not out).
For North Zone, Aditya Ramdeen (2/39) and Rahul Lakhan (2/30) were outstanding in their 10-over spells and were well-supported by Saleem Ali, Darius Popalie and Arshad Harrilal, who took one apiece to keep the Central batsmen in check.
But in reply, North Zone were restricted to 129 for nine wickets in their 50 overs with Niall Maingot offering some resistance with a well-played 45 and Aditya Ramdeen chipping in with 26.
The Central bowling was spearheaded by Ubaidullah Ubdoel with two wickets for 17 runs in six overs. He was backed up by Alexander Chase, Luke Ali, Tyron Lee Gopaul and Thomas Walsh with one scalp each.
In the other semi-final, East won the toss and took the first strike but could only muster 120 all out in 41.4 overs as Rajeev Ramgoolie (25) and Joseph Mendoza (24) and Stephan McPherson (20) made useful contributions.
The chief destroyer was South East captain Cristian Rampersad with a devastating haul of six wickets for 11 runs in 22 balls. Scyon Charles and Brendan Boodoo took one wicket each.
In their run chase, South East easily reached their target through Cristian Rampersad, who cracked an undefeated 32, while Oshan Gobin made 34. East Zone’s Abdul Raheem Toppin grabbed three for 19 in 9.3 overs and Lionel Ferguson, Nathan Ramsundar and Adesh Singh claimed one each in the losing effort.