Benn (4-26), Braithwaite (80*) steers Pride past Hurricanes into tomorrow’s Final

Jan 22, 2016 Sports

Man-of-the-Match, left-arm spinner Suleiman Benn spun webs around the Windwards Hurricanes batsmen to finish with 4-26 before Kraigg Braithwaite scored an unbeaten 80 to give Barbados Pride a comfortable seven-wicket

Slip Sulieman Benn and wkpr Shane Dowrich see Devon Smith hit six. WICB Media/Ashley Allen

win in yesterday’s second semi-final at the Queen’s Park Oval.
The Bajan Franchise now proudly marches into tomorrow’s final of the 2016 NAGICO Super 50 tournament against defending Champions Trinidad &Tobago’s Red Force in Port-of-Spain from 13:30 hrs.
Ashley Nurse (2-42), Carlos Braithwaite (2-41) and Jomal Warrican (2-30) supported Benn as the Hurricanes were blown away for 175 in 45.4 overs despite 44 from Devon Smith and 31 each from Tyrone Theophile and Sunil Ambris.
Braithwaite (80) and the elegant Shamarh Brooks (33) featured in an unfinished 96-run fourth wicket partnership to see Barbados to 179-3 from 44.3 overs to provide the team from the land of the Flying Fish with a chance of dethroning the Red Force in front of what is anticipated to be largest crowd of the tournament.
Mervin Matthew gave his team early hope by having the potentially dangerous Dwayne Smith LBW for a duck with the first ball of the innings before Mayers dismissed Shai Hope (28) and Liam Sebastian had Jonathon Carter (28) caught and bowled and at 83-3 in the 22nd over the Hurricanes were fighting back.
The 23-year-old Braithwaite soon reached his fifth fifty at this level before being miss-stumped by Andre Fletcher off Keron Cottoy on 69. But the level headed Braithwaite, who was 20 short of his maiden century at this level, and fellow right hander Brooks consolidate the position to see their team home.
Earlier, Johnson Charles was removed by Nurse for a duck with just a single on the board but Theophile and the left-handed Smith put together 75 for the second wicket before the latter was stumped off Benn when six short of what would have been his 22nd 50-over half century.
Benn got rid of Theophile six runs later as the Hurricanes slipped 81-3 before the towering Benn struck again by trapping Fletcher (2) to leave the Windward Island Franchise in a deep hole on 87-4.
Things got progressively worse when Skipper Sebastien (1) was caught behind as the 6ft 7inch Benn, who has played 34 ODIs, continued his demolition job to leave the Hurricanes on 95-5 in the 25th over.
Watched by the proverbial ‘two men and a dog’ Ambris and Kyle Mayers took the score to 121 and were embarking on ‘operation rebuild’ before Ambris hit a catch to West Indies Captain Jason Holder off Warrican with the score at 121-6.
Two quick wickets tumbled as Warrican removed Shane Shillingford (0) and Nurse got rid of Keron Cottoy in quick succession before Delorn Johnson (18*) and Matthew joined forces in a last wicket stand of 24. Braithwaite was then bowled by Matthew to end the innings.