Liberty Sports Club captures maiden EACA A Division Championship

Liberty Sports Club dethroned two-time defending champions, Big Apple Cricket Club, to capture it’s maiden Eastern American Cricket Association 40-Overs title on Sunday, September 13th at the Baisley Cricket Cage. Andre Kirton turned in a magnificent batting performance, blasting 87 off 36 balls, which was supported by an all round bowling and fielding display, led by Terrence Madramootoo’s 4 wickets for 18 runs, to route BACC by 139 runs to claim the A Division championship.

Overnight rain delayed the match by 30 minutes from the scheduled 11:00 AM start. BACC won the coin toss and with the intention to take advantage of the damp conditions opted to insert LSC to bat first. Early success of removing Romeno Deane (1) proved the decision at the toss worthwhile. Trevor Henry joined Francis Mendonca and added 41 for the 2nd wicket before Mendonca departed for 12. Henry who began the inning in a typical aggressive manner then stood helplessly to watch 3 more wickets fall. Sudesh Dhaniram (2), Trinson Carmichael (5) and Terrence Madramootoo (0) left the score at 80 for 5 in the 22nd over.

Skipper Danesh Deonarain joined Henry and the pair added 11 before Mark Gomes claimed the prize wicket of Henry, bowled for 44. This left LSC in very deep trouble at 91 for 6.

Kirton immediately announced his presence in the middle. Mark Gomes had previously had figures of 5.1 overs, 1 maiden, 3 wickets for 8 runs. Kirton started his account hitting Gomes for 4 followed by a pair of maximums to take 17 off his 6th over. It would be Gome’s last over in the match.

Kirton raced to his half century, depositing four 4’s and launching 5 maximums out of the cage. Deonarain and Kirton would put on 115 runs for the 7th wicket to take LSC to 206 before Kirton mistimed a pull to short third man. By then Kirton had raced to 87 off just 36 balls and turned the game around single handedly.

Deonarain departed in the next over for 33, Hemendra Ramdihal (7), Vijendra Singh (9) and Leon Mohabir (1*) rounded out the scorecard when LSC was bowled out for 225 in the 39th over.

Mark Gomes 3 for 24, Dominique Rikki 2 for 31 and Telston Johnson, Adam Sanford, Zaheer Saffie and Kevin Darlington with one each accounted for the wickets for BACC.

In reply BACC opened the chase with Richard Ramdeen and Dominique Rikki. Rikki lasted only three balls before the man of the day, Kirton, knocked over his stumps.

The aggressive Ramdeen raced to 23 hitting 2 sixes and a four before Ramdihal had him caught at backward point by Carmichael. Tarrel Datt, batting at number 3 for BACC struggled to get the ball off the pitch only managing 1 run off 19 balls before he was bowled by Ramdihal. Skipper, Saffie, and Travis Ross looked to patch things up with a 30 run partnership before a rain interruption forced the players off the field. The rain delayed the game enough to reduce the total required and overs to 219 runs off 37 overs using the Duckworth Lewis calculations.

The resumption brought the key wicket of Saffie who mistimed a pull shot to Ramdihal at short mid-wicket. BACC at 57 for 3 before Saffie departed, lost 6 wickets for 10 runs as the rampant men in blue suffocated the BACC batting. Madramootoo bowled Ross and Sanford for 12 and 0 respectively and had Hector stumped for 7 to take out the heart of the middle order. Trinson Carmichael kept the other end locked tight bowling Johnson for 1 while Leon Mohabir was sharp at point to run out Gomes.

With the last pair of Shiv Ragubar (1*) and Kevin Darlington (1*) the rain returned again to wash out the remainder of play. The final result, LSC victorious by Duckworth-Lewis calculated 139 runs to claim the 2015 title.

Bowling for LSC Madramootoo finished with 4 for 18, Ramdihal 2 for 8, Andre Kirton 1 for 11 and Trinson Carmichael 1 for 14.

President of Eastern American Cricket Association Mr. Rudy wishes to thank all the well wishers and supporters who have been behind the team throughout the year and at the final. He said the team is looking forward for a great season next year. The BACC and LSC Teams would like to congratulate the EACA executive in staging another successful competition.