Jason Mohamed drives Steven Jacobs through the off-side during his match-winning 65
Trinidad and Tobago put in a disciplined all-round effort to boot Guyana and book a place in the final of the Regional Super50 competition with a hard-fought four-wicket win with 23 balls to spare in the first semi-final at the National Stadium last evening.
Scores in the match: Guyana 200-9 from 50 overs; T& T 201-6 from 46.1 overs.
Left-handed opener Justin Guillen got his first substantial score of the competition, a solid 63, but it was a classy, unbeaten 65 from the in-form Jason Mohamed that sealed the win for the Caribbean’s two-time Champions League representative.
Though Guillen stood firm, T& T lost wickets regularly at the other end with William Perkins (00), skipper Darren Ganga (08) and Dwayne Bravo (08) all being dismissed cheaply as the visitors struggled to 75-3 by the 19th over.
Guillen, who hit 63 from 91 balls with seven fours, added 30 for the fourth wicket with Mohamed before he was brilliantly caught by Travis Dowlin on the deep mid-wicket boundary off the bowling of off- spinner Royston Crandon. Sherwin Ganga (01) followed soon after at 106- 5 to leave the match interestingly poised.
Reyad Emrit then joined Mohamed and the pair quashed any hopes Guyana had of victory with a solid partnership of 55, Emrit contributing 17.
At the fall of Emrit’s wicket, run out by Leon Johnson at mid-off, the talented Kevon Cooper strode to the crease and creamed three sweetly timed boundaries in an unbeaten 17 to speed up the victory chase.
All the while, Mohamed stood like a rock, hitting four fours and a six from 79 deliveries to record his second fifty of the tournament.
Off- spinner, Steven Jacobs, and Royston Crandon were the pick of the bowlers for Guyana with 2-20 and 2-42 respectively.
Skipper Assad Fudadin had earlier called correctly at the toss and immediately decided to take first strike with a sprinkling of spectators in the Red and Green Stands. However, the decision backfired as the hosts lost three early wickets for only 47 runs within the first 20 overs.
Openers Trevon Griffith (12) and Fudadin (00) and the experienced Travis Dowlin (17) were all dismissed cheaply as the T& T bowlers kept a tight rein on proceedings with seamer Reyad Emrit, and spinners Samuel Badree and Sunil Narine being the respective wicket-takers.
With T& T in the ascendancy and Guyana on the back foot, the inform Leon Johnson and all-rounder Steven Jacobs joined forces to repair the innings with a fighting partnership of 81.
They complemented each other well with positive running between the wickets, coupled with the occasional boundaries when the bad balls presented themselves.
They brought up the hundred in the 32nd over, and with Johnson reaching his second half-century of the competition from 88 balls, the Guyanese were slowly laying the foundation for a much needed onslaught during the closing overs.
However, that was not to be as the left-hander lobbed a delivery to short mid-wicket for off-spinner Sherwin Ganga to run around and complete the catch off his own bowling. Johnson’s top score of 66 spanned 113 balls and included five fours and two sixes, but after his dismissal at 130- 4 in the 38th over, the last five wickets could only manage 70 from the last 12 overs.
Emrit added three more wickets during this period as Jacobs (32), Christopher Barnwell (21), Royston Crandon (23), Jonathon Foo (08), and Derwin Christain (06) fell as Guyana hunted quick runs.
Emrit ended with 4-39 from nine overs, while the competition’s leading wicket- taker, Narine, bagged 2- 26 from 12 overs and S. Ganga 2- 48 from 11.
T& T will now face the winner of the second semi-final between Jamaica and the Sagicor High Performance Centre (HPC) today at the same venue. The day/night activity will bowl off at 13: 30h. The grand finale is billed for Saturday.
Comments are closed.