World Test record-hold­er Bri­an Lara made a win­ning re­turn to club crick­et in T&T, help­ing his boy­hood club, Har­vard Sports Club, to a re­sound­ing eight-wick­et win over Ebony Sports in the North Zone Crick­et Coun­cil T20 Fes­ti­val at the Diego Mar­tin Re­gion­al Sports Com­plex in a 15-over af­fair on Sat­ur­day.

He cut the first de­liv­ery he faced to the square bound­ary to get off the mark with a four af­ter com­ing out to bat at 48 for two af­ter sev­en overs.

Lara, who holds the record for the high­est in­di­vid­ual Test in­nings of 400 not out, which he scored against Eng­land in 2004 at the An­tigua Recre­ation Ground, hit 26 not out, in­clud­ing the win­ning runs in an in­nings that last­ed 17 de­liv­er­ies and con­sist­ed of five fours. He shared in an un­bro­ken 56-run stand with An­dre Yard, who count­ed four fours in his 31 not out, as Har­vard reached 104 for two.

The in­nings' foun­da­tion was laid by Kegan Jones (25) and Yohance Kwe­si (13).

Ear­li­er, the Mor­vant-based Ebony scored 100 for 6 from their al­lot­ment of 15 overs, re­duced from 20 be­cause of rain.

Open­er Clevon Fred­er­ick was their best bats­man with 19, but it was a slow in­nings that took 27 de­liv­er­ies, as the Har­vard bowlers were stingy in their ap­proach. Led by Jerome Simp­son, who con­ced­ed just 12 runs from his three overs.

Jonathan Lacario added a fur­ther 16 from 20 balls, and Do­minic Red­head scored 15 off 11 balls at the back end of the in­nings and was the on­ly Ebony bat­ter who scored in dou­ble fig­ures with a strike rate of above 100.

In the match on Fri­day, Kyle Ram­doo scored an un­beat­en 50 to lead North Side Fu­ture Stars to a sev­en-wick­et win over Sa­van­nah Boys. North Side Stars suc­cess­ful­ly got 149 for 3, af­ter Sa­van­nah Boys scored 148 for 8. Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege cap­tain Luke Ali was the main­stay of Sa­van­nah Boys with 39.

Sum­marised scores

Sat­ur­day

Ebony 100/6 (Clevon Fred­er­ick 19, Jonathan Lacario 16; Kevon Charles 2-19) vs Har­vard 104 /2 (An­dre Yard 31 not out, Bri­an Lara 26 not out; Trey Ser­rette 1-11). Har­vard won by 8 wick­ets.

Fri­day

Sa­van­nah Boys 148 /8 (20 overs) (Luke Ali 39; Verune Ram­nar­ine 21; Trevor Padil­la 4-20) vs North Side Fu­ture Stars 149 /3 (17.5 overs) (Kyle Ram­doo 50 not out, Akiel Guer­ra 38 not out; Vi­jal Teemal 1-19). North Side Fu­ture Stars won by sev­en wick­ets.