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T&T begin title defence with 91-run win against Jamaica
Daren Bravo
By Sean Devers
Defending champions Trinidad and Tobago shrugged off the fatigue of arriving in Guyana close to mid-night on Tuesday to efficiently defend a modest target as they beat Jamaica by 91 runs in the opening match of the President’s Cup Regional One-Day cricket at the Guyana National Stadium yesterday.
In a game reduced to 44 overs due to a 75-minute late start due to seepage onto the ‘square’, T&T made 201-9 as only Daren Bravo (43) passed 25 as left-arm spinner Nikita Miller took 3-28, David Bernard 2-30 and Odean Browne 2-39.
In mainly overcast conditions and watched by a handful of spectators, Jamaica beaten by T&T at the same venue in last year’s semi-finals, struggled on a slow and low track to reach 111-9 when their 44 overs expired. Brenton Parchment laboured for a top score of 22 from 55 balls with 2 fours as nobody else passed 15 in conditions which ideally suited the T&T bowling attack.
Leg-spinner and Man-of-the-Match Samuel Badree, who opened the bowling, almost broke the 28-year-old record for most economical spell in Regional One-Day cricket held by his countryman and fellow leg-spinner Harold Joseph (10-5-7-3) by finishing with 9-4-8-0 to shackle the a Jamaican top order without Skipper Chris Gayle and Shawn Findley who along with Jerome Taylor missed the game due to illness.
The energetic Dwayne Bravo took 3 quick wickets in the middle over to end with 3-32 while left-arm back-of-the-hand spinner David Mohamed staked an early claim for West Indies selection for the tour to Australia as he befuddled the batsmen to take 3-24 from 9 overs. Kieron Pollard (2-8 from 5 overs) also contributed with the ball for T&T who like they did in their wonderful run in the Champions league 20/20 tournament in India, showed great team spirit and seemed to enjoy their cricket despite their long trip from India.
Asked to bat, T&T lost Adrian Barath, who hit 3 fours in his 18; caught behind by stand-in Skipper Carlton Baugh, off Daren Powell at 21-1. Lindl Simmons (11) was then squared-up by a ball from Miller which pitched outside leg stump and hit off stump at 56-2.
Daren Bravo played some enterprising cover drives and along with Skipper Daren Ganga (19) took the score to 92 before Ganga, who has endorsed Gayle as West Indies Skipper, drove Bernard to mid-off.
Dwayne Bravo (9) continued his lean run with the bat when he top-edged a sweep at Browne to slip while his younger brother, who hit 5 fours from 62 balls was bowled by Bernard at 106-5 as the siblings perished on the same score.
Denish Ramdeen was caught and bowled by Miller who extracted prodigious spin and bowled with impressive guile while Sherwin Ganga (18) was run out and Badree (22) was bowled by pacer Andrew Richardson as T&T were never allowed to put their foot on the gas.
When Jamaica began their reply they scored at a snail’s pace as Badree bowled gun-barrel straight with clever variation and although Ravi Rampaul conceded a couple of early boundaries the Jamaicans were never allowed to build momentum.
Bravo sent back Danza Hyatt (15) who batted with a runner, Xavier Marshal (5) and Wavel Hinds (1) while Mohamed bowled Brendon Nash (12) as Jamaica, who last won the title when they beat T&T in the 2007 final under lights in Barbados, slumped to 50-4 in 21 overs.
Once Pollard bowled Bernard (10) no one else apart from Richardson (15*) reached double figures as Jamaica managed to bat out their overs. The competition continues on Friday when Jamaica face CCC at Bourda, the TCLG West Indies U-19 side play Leeward Islands at Providence, Windward Islands battle T&T at Uitvlugt and Guyana oppose Barbados at Albion.
Guyana beat the Leewards, CCC got the better of the Windwards and Barbados got the better of the TCLG West Indies U-19s in the other first round matches yesterday.
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