PowerGen dethrone Cane Farm in UWI -UNICOM T20 final

SHERDON PIERRE

Powergen held their nerves to dethrone the defending champions Cane Farm in a thriller in the final of the UWI-UNICOM National T20 Tournament played on Saturday night at the Sir Frank Worrell Ground, UWI, St Augustine campus.

Cane Farm were inserted to bat and it proved to be great a decision by the captain of Powergen Ancil Bhagan as the Tacarigua-based team were 17/3 within four overs. Daron Cruickshank claimed two wickets in the powerplay when he bowled both Darren Bravo (7) and Anthony Simmons for a duck. Sunil Narine (4) was caught by Sanjiv Gooljar at midwicket off Kavesh Kantasingh. Then, Lendl Simmons and Romel Nanan steadied the innings with a 50-run partnership before Nanan departed for 21 runs lbw off Mark Deyal. Simmons had a boundary and a six but fell in Deyal`s next over caught at cover by Castro for 34 runs from 25 balls including two fours and two sixes. Skipper Rayad Emrit gave his team a respectable total considering the difficult batting conditions by contributing 24 runs from 17 balls ( 1 four, 2 sixes). Cane Farm closed on 127/7 from their allotted 20 overs. The best bowlers were Cruickshank (2/20) and Deyal (2/23). The opening pair of Cruickshank and Evin Lewis started positively before Cruickshank was outfoxed by Narine for 18 runs in the sixth over 33/1. Lewis changed gears to hit Anthony Simmons for two sixes then the biggest six of the night came off Jon-Russ Jaggessar in the next over. But, Jaggessar got revenge in the last ball over when he had Lewis caught on the long off boundary by Akeel Seetal for 39 runs off 25 balls (two fours, 3 sixes).

Cane Farm tightened the screws and Roshon Primus could have gotten the eventual man of the match Jeron Maniram cheaply but the umpire decided not out on what seemed to be a plumb lbw decision. Together Maniram and Ewart Nicholson contributed 34 brisk runs which was the largest in the innings. Needing 14 from 12 balls Primus captured the wickets of Castro and Deyal for ducks and surrendering 6 runs. Lendl Simmons decided to bowl the last over having to defend 8 runs with the score on 120/6. In the second ball of the over, Maniram attempted a second run and was run out by Lendl for a well-played 24 runs. There was another debatable situation in the match, the next ball Gooljar drived straight back to the bowler and Simmons fielded cleanly then dislodged the bails and the non-striker captain Bhagan and Gooljar didn’t cross until after. However, umpire Barasingha sent Gooljar to the dressing for a golden duck. The rule states “the closest batsman to the fallen wicket is given an out for run out no matter when or if the batsmen cross over on the pitch.” This worked in the favour of Powergen as they needed 6 runs from 2 balls for victory and Skipper Bhagan slogged Simmons for a boundary over midwicket and flicked him for two runs behind square leg off the last delivery of the innings. Powergen wining by two wickets. Primus took (2/13) while Narine registered (1/9) from his four overs. After collecting his team`s $35,000 cheque, Bhagan said, “I was a bit nervous for the last delivery but I know I had to put bat to ball and that is what I did. We have been playing good cricket throughout the tournament but coming in to play against a team with all these West Indies players played on our minds. We hold our own, played simple cricket and it worked out for us in the end. Thanks everyone for coming out to support and we couldn’t ask for a better final.”