First Citizens double winners at CARIFIN competition

First Citizens came out on top at CARIFIN’s cricket and football competition held, on Saturday, at Republic Bank’s Sports Facilities, Barataria.

On the sixth competition day of the games, the financial services sector had a lot to be happy and excited about as the two sporting disciplines were keenly contested. It was enough to generate a high level of passion and friendly rivalry.

The final was thrilling, with a display of wind ball cricket with some big hitting by both teams. For the final, First Citizens batted first posting 60 runs for 4 wickets in the 7 overs, with some massive hitting back over the bowler’s head – the reason for this is there is a rule in the competition, which says that you get a six and out if you hit over the fence. The run rate was 8.5 runs per over, the highest scoring over was 15 runs and the slowest was 3.

When asked how they felt about the day’s victory, spokesperson for the First Citizen’s cricket team ,Wayne Rochard said, “Looking at the past years we weren’t taking the cricket serious – more so the football, everybody wanted to be a footballer and when you look at the cricket we were scarce, but this year we have the cricketers, they committed themselves and we feel great that we were able to come out and perform and be victorious at the same time.” Jibran Jahoor of First Citizens scored 33 runs, the most runs in the game.

JMMB responded and was matching the big hitting of First Citizens.However, they were hitting mostly over the fence. Three of their batsmen were out taccording to that rule. JMMB was restricted to 43 runs all out in their 7 overs. “Never take anything for granted,” said Rondell Ramcharitar, spokesperson for JMMB Group cricket team. “We got a little comfortable – we had to wait 3 games before we played our final game, some of the guys got a little cold, so we need to keep active and never take anything for granted.” The weather was almost perfect for cricket with a slight drizzle, but fortunately no major rain. ANSA Financial and JMMB came out to start the cricket competition. The encounter saw JMMB coming out on top. It was a two-group of three competition with the top of table group heading to the final. First Citizens played Scotiabank, Central Bank and went on to play JMMB in the final.

Football

In football action, First Citizens were made to fight all the way to the end, even being beaten along the way by last year winner’s Scotiabank 2 - 0 in round three in the seven team round robin competition. Matches were played simultaneously on two fields. Action kicked-off at 10.30 am as ANSA Financial Services faced-off against Guardian Group, on field 1. Guardian Group won 3-0. On field 2, Central Bank was up against First Citizens, with the latter winning 1-nil.

Filling the most valuable player male spot was First Citizens’ James Brown. Man of the match for the final game went to Central Bank’s Joseph Craig.

In the semi-final round, First Citizens got a chance to exact revenge on Scotiabank for their 2- 0 defeat in the earlier rounds. They hit back with a 1–0 score that Scotiabank had no answer for with the goal coming from Kristen Emmanuel.

In the finals, First Citizens faced Central Bank in a dramatic and exciting encounter. It ended nil - nil at regulation time. The championship question had to go to penalty kicks. Central Bank failed to get on the score sheet in their first attempt at the penalty spot as First Citizens’s goal keeper Sterlyn Ralph saved the shot. Scorers for First Citizens were Kyle Cambridge and Kristien Emmanuel. Ralph was able to keep 2 of CBTT shots out of his net while only CBTT goalkeeper Joseph Craig was able to convert from the penalty spot. The game end 2 -1 in favour of First Citizens.