KINGSTOWN, St Vincent (CMC) — Trinidad and Tobago lifted the three-day title of the Regional Under-19 Championship when they trounced Jamaica by 10 wickets on the final day of the third and last round here yesterday.
Set a paltry 58 for victory after dismissing Jamaica for 267 in their second innings, T&T were propelled over the line by the in-form Cephas Cooper, who finished on an unbeaten 40 off 38 balls.
Cooper, who struck seven fours and a six, ended the match without being dismissed after scoring a superb 173 not out in the first innings.
Another century-maker had earlier taken the spotlight when opener Kirk McKenzie struck an excellent 129 as Jamaica lost just one wicket in the first session to stall T&T's victory bid.
The Indian Premier League is indeed the benchmark for franchise T20 and is incomparable but as the nation with arguably the world’s biggest T20 stars the West Indies have a duty to give the Indians a proper chase. In that stead, the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) got underway in midweek in an electrifying atmosphere at the Queens’s Park Oval in Trinidad where the Trinbago Knight Riders defeated the St. Lucia Stars by 100 runs.
The CPL has indeed been a franchise league since it’s inception but this might be the first season that has this ‘feel’; with Pollard (no longer Sammy) captaining the St. Lucia Stars, Shoaib Malik leading the Guyana Amazon Warriors and Chris Gayle in his second season with the St. Kitts & Nevis Patriots. A foreigner leading the GAW and Gayle with the Patriots are not new but these along with the other slight changes are helping the Caribbean fans accept and even welcome the CPL for what it is–a franchise league.
The Caribbean people though still need a sense of ‘home’ within the teams. For this reason, it seems important that Sammy stay with the the Stars (even if not as a leader), the Jamaica Tallawahs don’t lose the likes of Andre Russell and that young emerging stars be included in their local based franchises.
Excitement in this format of the game is a certainty. However, indexes of a league that will attract viewers and players alike are the atmosphere and passion. As seen in both Trinidad and Guyana the past two weeknights, these are areas which the CPL is already winning. Acceptably, the IPL is way out in front and probably will never be caught but the CPL can aim to make it a non-argument as to which league is the most desirous following the IPL.
The Caribbean must improve the quality of young stars and/ breakthrough players which are produced and introduced to the world through playing cricket louder. We see players like Ishan Kishan and Rishabh Pant (the 20 year old Indian who was the 2nd highest run-scorer in IPL 2018) delivering despite their youth. Even though the IPL attracts the best in world, there is still a balance with the opportunities being given to their young players.
For the West Indies region however, the onus does not fall solely on the CPL. We see young Keemo Paul who was brought into the Windies set-up earlier this year because of an injury to Seldon Cottrell during the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier. He has since gone on to make his Test Debut, to being giving final over duties for both Windies (in T20Is) and the GAW. We may also take a look at Shimron Hetmyer, who we can argue was unfortunately left out at the start of the Windies’ Test Summer. The young man has since then put his head down, showing maturity beyond his years and put his hand up–for which he has also been rewarded by the GAW.
The Hero CPL has a flurry of international stars (from right here in the Caribbean), the atmosphere & passion to attract foreign stars along with the beauty of the islands. If there’s anything that rivals international stars attracting supporters and viewers; it’s young emerging players. We look forward to a CPL18 where the youngsters rise up, raise eye-brows and get noticed.
Carlos Brathwaite's fine all-round show (41 and two wickets) helped St Kitts and Nevis Patriots overcome Trinbago Knight Riders by a comfortable margin of 42 runs in Trinidad, on Saturday (August 11). Trinbago could muster only 161 in pursuit of a massive target of 204.
While chasing down a sizeable target, the defending champions would have hoped for a solid start. However, Sandeep Lamichhane, Ben Cutting and Sheldon Cottrell bagged a scalp each as the hosts were reduced to a precarious 34 for 3 in the fifth over. Colin Munro, the big-hitting all-rounder, smashed a quickfire 17-ball 35 before he fell to Brathwaite, with the score reading 56 for 4.
Darren Bravo (41), batting at No. 5, and Kevon Cooper (42 not out), lower down the order, gave a good account of themselves but the duo had too much to do. Brathwaite, Cutting and the promising pacer from Leeward Islands, Jeremiah Louis, took two scalps each.
Earlier, the visitors too had found themselves in trouble at 3 for 2. However, Devon Thomas (58) and Chris Gayle (35) came to their rescue with a third-wicket alliance of 66. At that stage of the innings, Cooper dislodged Gayle to dent St Kitts and Nevis further. Anton Devcich and Mahmudullah couldn't make significant contributions, while Sunil Narine castled Thomas as the visitors slid to 141 for 6 in the 16th over.
AMID a passionate and excited crowd, the Guyana Amazon Warriors prevailed in a low-scoring, nail-biting contest by three runs in match 4 of the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL), against St Lucia Stars, last evening at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.
In a dramatic finish, the game had all the ebbs and flows throughout and in the end the Stars could not prevent a miserable 13-match losing streak.
Chasing 141 for victory, the Stars ponder over the botched run-chase, and eventually reached 138-7, as the hosts’ pace and spin combination ensured the losing streak continued for the Stars.
Besides the bucketful of tricks that leg-spinner Imran Tahir possesses in his armoury in terms of his googlies, top-spinners and leg-breaks that had the Stars’ batsmen perplexed last night, with figures of 2-23, it was the medium pacers, Rayad Emrit (3-26), and Keemo Paul, who held their nerves together in the final two overs in the run chase.
With 23 required in the final two overs, Emrit took two wickets and gave away just seven runs before Paul took the wicket of Kavem Hodge and gave away just 13 runs in the final over to help three-time CPL finalists prevail in the end.
Khan spilled Andre Russell's first ball at deep square leg in the seventh over off a top-edged sweep against Fawad Ahmed. The Jamaican then went onto a 40-ball hundred - the fastest in the CPL - in a record chase as Tallawahs won with three balls to spare.
.Along with a hat-trick in the 20th over of the first innings, Russell's 121 not out off 49 balls that included 13 sixes, capped one of the greatest all-round individual performances in T20 cricket.
Munro keeps motoring
Colin Munro's excellent early season form continued. Entering seven balls into the match after Sunil Narine miscued an Imad Wasim arm ball, Munro produced his second half-century in three days, adding 98 for the second wicket with Chris Lynn. However, he was hardly the star of the innings, and would be well back in the queue of spectacular performances by the end of the night.
