Yorkshire fast bowler Aadian Racha bowled a Super Over at the Queen’s Park Oval in St Clair, Port-of-Spain that conceded only one run to hand reigning T&T Cricket Board T20 Festival Champions Central Sports a loss on the opening evening (Thursday) of the 2025 edition.
Racha, who opted to skip Presentation College San Fernando’s huge 279-run win against Toco Secondary in favour of Yorkshire, made his decision pay off with the Man-of-the-match performance against the champions who missed Kamil Pooran, Lendl Simmons and Akeem Jordan. Pooran and Jordan are currently with the Combined Campuses and Colleges in the ongoing Cricket West Indies Championship while Simmons is with West Indies Masters in Asia.
Yorkshire were sent in to bat first and were put under pressure from Barbadian fast bowler Amari Goodridge. The tall powerfully-built right-arm fast bowler bowled aggressively in a fiery spell where he took four wickets on a Queen’s Park Oval pitch that surprisingly helped fast bowlers.
Mario Belcon was the first to be dismissed when Goodridge had him caught by Sameer Ali in the first over and he bowled Ziggy Levy for five at 19 for two.
Yorkshire’s middle order was boosted by Brian Christmas (44) and Trevon James (39), supporting opener Ethan Gibson, who scored 29.
Yorkshire closed on 167 for eight from their 20 overs.
Central Sports' reply started in disaster as Racha and Devon Lord rattled the top order. They were reduced to 25 for five with Imran Khan (1), Mikkel Govia (8), Aaron Alfred (0), Jabari Mills (5) and Jeremiah Cruickshank (9) all back in the pavilion. Lord had accounted for three wickets and Racha two including Mills, who was caught by wicketkeeper Samuel Felix from a snorter. He was dropped by Felix one ball before from a similar delivery.
Jesse Bootan (49) and Barbadian Roshon Primus (35) built a 67-run partnership and brought Central Sports back into the match. But their wickets, in addition to Darone Dayis (11) and Goodridge (7), left the reigning champions at 141 for 9 and still needed a further 27 runs from their last pair.
Ali and Josh Telemaque brought them to the doorstep as the Central-based reigning champions, who are unbeaten this season, needed one run from the last three balls in an over bowled by Ziggy Levy.
Two dot balls and a run out on the final ball sent the first match of the 2025 edition to a Super Over.
Central Sports' Super Over was absurd as Racha conceded just one run in the over that saw two run outs as Racha’s pace and aggressively smart bowling laid the foundation for a two-run target for Yorkshire. Roshon Primus and Mikkel Govia faced the Super Over for Central Sports.
Yorkshire comprehensively won the Super Over when Trevon James blasted the first ball over the mid-wicket boundary for six to complete the surprise win.
In the other match, a star-studded Queen’s Park Cricket Club with Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Andre Fletcher and Darren Bravo beat Preysal by seven wickets to go top of Group A with a better net run rate than Yorkshire.
Summarised scores
Yorkshire 167 all out (20 overs) (Brian Christmas 44; Trevon James 39; Amari Goodridge 4-26; Imran Khan 2-30) vs Central Sports 167 all out (20 overs) (Jesse Bootan 49; Roshon Primus 35; Devon Lord 3-42; Aadian Racha 2-27).
Super Over: Central Sport 1/2 (1 over) vs Yorkshire 6/0 (0.1 over). Yorkshire won the Super Over.
Preysal 141 /9 (20 overs) (Jason Batson 34; Aaron Bankay 29; Kieron Pollard 4-20) vs Queen’s Park 142/3 (14.1 overs) (Darren Bravo 52 not out; Terrence Hinds 39; Ronaldo Forrester 1-19). Queen’s Park won by 7 wickets.
