West Indies, Australia & England register wins again in the 3rd round of the Big Man Cricket O60s Caribbean Cup Tournament

Feb 06, 2023 Sports

BMC Caribbean Cup in Association with Blue Waters &Barbados Tourism Marketing INC

Kaieteur News – The BMC Caribbean Cup continued Friday with excellent Barbados weather at all the 3 venues- Four Square Oval, Wanderers CC & the BNOC Sports Club and West Indian George Harris registered the first century of the BMC Tournament. This round, England and Australia had an easy day at the park registering comprehensive victories in their encounters, whilst West Indies had to sweat it out against ROW to earn their closely fought victory.

MATCH 1 at BNOC Sports Club-In the England v Invitational XI encounter at the BNOC ground, the Englishmen registered their 2nd victory. On a good wicket against very disciplined bowling, Invitational XI could only muster 146 for 9 off their 45 overs. Dave Ramdan made 32 with one boundary, Winston Herbert 26 with 2 boundaries and a maximum, Mihir Gandhi 19 and Parmar 19 with 2 boundaries apiece. Four of the English bowlers took 2 wickets apiece- Phil Deakin 2 for 25, Jim Phillips 2 for 29, Chris Dearden 2 for 22 and Richard Merriman 2 for 11.

The Englishmen then cantered through to 149 whilst losing 2 wickets off 27.3 overs. Kevin Grant led the charge with 57 not out with 3 boundaries. Opener Martin Watkin made 35 with 3 boundaries. Edward Gordon-Lennox was also undefeated on 31 with 3 boundaries.

MATCH 2 at the WANDERERS CC- In the WI vs ROW encounter the Windies won the toss for the 2nd time and elected to bat. The ROW bowlers put a tight lid on the free scoring West Indians and had them tottering at 33 for 4 after 11.4 overs with Opener Keith Lawrence, Jefferson Gibbons, Captain Roy Singh and Richard Sieuchan all back in the hut. Rodney Husbands joined George Harris and they steadied the ship with a breathtaking 76 run partnership. Husbands scored 44 off 42 deliveries which was peppered with 5 boundaries and 2 sixes.

Zamin Amin then joined George and they continued to pile on the runs at a very good clip. Zamin had a run a ball 32 with 5 beautifully timed boundaries and shared in a 84 run partnership with George. Harris continued to bat beautifully mixing solid defense with controlled aggression but was unfortunately run out for a masterful 122 made off 125 deliveries which had 15 sweetly timed boundaries. Emmerson Jordan with 13 and Hafiz Mohamed with 14 both had a solitary boundary maintained the momentum to the end. Hafiz displayed his dexterity with a beautifully executed switch hit shot which raced to the 3rd man boundary.

Bowling for the ROW, Captain John Courtney bowled his 9 overs on the trot to finish with 3 for 25, whilst Rex Bennett had 2 for 38.

In their turn at the crease, ROW had a solid start of 57 in 12.2 overs before they lost Anthony Bennett for a well-played 30 with 2 boundaries. Thereafter they lost 3 or 4 quick wickets before Arnold Manders and Paul Keneally came together for a brilliant partnership that got West Indies very nervous. West Indies eventually got Manders out at 152 for 6 in the 31st over who batted very sensibly for 34 with 4 boundaries and one six. Captain John Courtney then joined Paul after another wicket fell at 169 and gave the ROW some more hope and WI some more anxious moments. But when Keneally was wonderfully caught by Zamin Amin on the mid-on boundary for a well-played 64 it was all over for the ROW team. John was bowled off the final delivery of the 42nd over bowled by Zamin Amin. The top bowlers for WI were Emmerson Jordan with 3 for 20 and Samad Motara with 3 for 39.

George Harris received the MOM for the West Indies whilst Paul Keanelly was adjudged the MOM for the ROW.

MATCH 3 at the Four-Square Oval-Pickwick CC- Australia continued their dominant display by demolishing the hapless USA team by a huge margin in another very clinical display. In keeping with the general trend in this tournament whereby all teams winning the toss electing to bat, Australian took first strike and racked up the highest score of the tournament -258 for 6 off their allotted 45 overs whilst surpassing the Windies previous highest score of 250 posted on Wednesday. The Aussies lost 2 very early wickets to be precariously placed at 26 for 2 but then consolidated with Kent Officer hitting a brilliant 73 laced with 8 boundaries and a maximum. Glen Robinson also hit a superb undefeated 53 with 4 boundaries to shepherd the lower order to their eventual total. There were some other useful contributions by Claude Orlando 42 with 4 boundaries and Greg Hoysted 35 with 3 boundaries. s for a well-played 39 with 2 boundaries. Extras contributed a healthy 30 to the total with their premier bowler, Michael Griffin giving away 13 wides. Griffin still had the best figures of 3 for 46 whilst Tirumurti had 2 for 51.

Much was expected from this USA team, but they have flattered to deceive. They never got going in their innings and fell for the 2nd lowest total of the tournament. Only Chandrakant Barlingay top scored with 24 with 4 boundaries and a six and captain Wayne Copeland with 16 reached double figures. All 5 Aussies bowlers used took 2 wickets apiece- Stuart Ridge 2 for 4, Syd D’Mello 2 for 23, Stephen Moore 2 for 22, Sam Davis 2 for 10, and Mike Riley 2 for 8.