T&T U-15s going for 2nd win today
Published on Jul 28, 2016, 11:00 pm AST
Trinidad and Tobago will be seeking their second successive win in the West Indies Cricket Board's Regional Under-15 Championship when they face Jamaica in Round Two at Progress Park in Grenada today. The T&T youths are coming off a positive start to their campaign, having beating Barbados by 23 runs in a low-scoring encounter at La Sagesse on Wednesday.
Defending 174 in the 50-over affair, the T&T U-15s dismissed the Bajans for 151 in 46.1 overs.
Barbados made a cautious start, the opening partnership producing 29 runs before Jacob Bethell was run out by Darren Samlal for seven, in the seventh over. Dasani Griffith then joined Seth Agard and they had put on 35 when Griffith was caught behind for 17 by the T&T captain, Leonardo Julien, off the spin of Aniel Pitiram.
Agard went on to get the top score of 35, made off 78 balls. Wickets fell steadily thereafter, and despite wicketkeeper Rashawn Worrell's unbeaten 32, the Bajans fell 23 short of the target, with six batsmen failing to get into double-figures.
Skipper Julien used nine bowlers and it was spin that proved decisive. Tariq Mohammed returned figures of three wickets for 21 runs from 8.1 overs while Darren Samlal claimed two for 33 from 10.
Earlier, T&T had owed much to a lower order half-century stand between Jayden Seales and Sameer Ali to take them to 174 for eight off their 50 overs.
Barbadian seamer Jediah Blades started a top order slide, removing openers Mohammed (Tariq) for one and Samlal for 11 to leave T&T 27 for two in the sixth over. Skipper Julien fell for just three as T&T struggled to score in the face of four quick bowlers, sliding to 96 for six. Apart from Samlal, Leon Basanoo was the only other batsman in the top six to get into double-figures, crawling to 24 off 100 balls faced before he was run out.
However, Pitiram and Seales wrested the initiative from the Barbadians, raising 51 invaluable runs off 8.1 overs. Seales struck four fours and a six in his 41, struck off 34 deliveries, before he was bowled by pacer Mathew Forde; Ali remained unbeaten on 16 off 27.
It was enough to give the T&T bowlers a chance, and the spinners did the rest.
In other matches, Guyana defeated the Windward Islands by seven wickets and the Leewards beat Jamaica by two wickets.
T&T thus ended the opening round in third position in the standings on 6.1 points; Guyana (6.7) head the points table, followed by the Leewards (6.5), as both gained more bonus points than T&T in their opening day wins. Barbados were fourth, while Jamaica and the Windwards were without a point.
Summarised scores:
T&T 174-8 (J Seales 41, L Basanoo 24; R Belgrave 2/8, J Blades 2/26)
vs Barbados 151 (S Agard 35, R Worrell 32 n.o.; T Mohammed 3/21, D Samlal 2/32)
—T&T won by 23 runs
Windwards 108 (G Serieux 33, J Buddy 21; L Swamy 2/14, D Paul 2/18, S Deodat 2/19).
vs Guyana 109-3 (S Singh 50, Y Persaud 29; J Valmond 2/10)
—Guyana won by seven wickets
Jamaica 141 (R Williams 28, R Barnes 27 n.o.; K Esdaille 2/13, T Tonge 2/22, T Newman 2/43).
vs Leewards 142-8 (K Sutton 33, T Newman 22; R Jacob 4/36)
—Leewards won by two wickets
Matches today
At Progress Park: Jamaica vs Trinidad and Tobago
At La Sagesse: Windward Islands vs Leeward Islands
At Tanteen: Guyana vs Barbados
www.trinidadexpress.com/20160728/sports/...ng-for-2nd-win-today