Pooran guides Red Force to nervy win

TT Red Force batsman Nicholas Pooran says he enjoys batting under pressure during the Cricket West Indies Regional Super50 tournament, after pulling the Red Force out of trouble in three consecutive matches to start the tournament.

Pooran has scored three half-centuries in the tournament, which has led the Red Force to three consecutive wins to start the tournament. Pooran’s last score of 66 guided Red Force to a nervous two-wicket win over Canada at the Queen’s Park Oval, St Clair, on Sunday.

The loss was Canada’s third straight of the tournament.

Pooran has rescued the Red Force in all three matches so far. The left-hander came to the crease with Red Force 67 for five in the 18th over, 67/3 in the 15th over and 57/3 in the 19th over against Windward Islands Volcanoes, Guyana Jaguars and Canada respectively.

After his knock against Canada, Pooran said, “It is just one of those tournaments. (I am) coming in under some pressure in the three games. I like the challenge, I like to be under pressure as a batsman. It has been working for me and I am thankful for that, I am trying to be as consistent as I could, work with the good form that I have so far, don’t take anything for granted and start my innings as if I have no form.”

Chasing a modest 208 for victory against Canada, TT Red Force lost wickets regularly, but thanks to Pooran and an even half-century from Kyle Hope, they got to 208/8 in 40.4 overs.

When wickets kept falling, Pooran said there were some nerves in the pavilion, but he was confident Red Force would bring home the win.

“Obviously there would be nerves, but we know our strength as a team and a family. We bat really deep, Rayad (Emrit) and Khary (Pierre) was there, everybody could bat in our team and at no point in time we thought we were going to lose this game.”

Pooran struck 66 off 45 balls with seven fours and two sixes and Hope cracked 50 off 84 deliveries with three fours. In the run chase, Pooran, Kieron Pollard (three) and Kyle Hope all fell in quick succession, as Red Force were reduced to 170/6 in the 35th over, to leave the match interestingly poised. Two more wickets fell, but an unbeaten 18 from Emrit helped Red Force to the target. Sukhdeep Brar was the top bowler for Canada grabbing 3/39 in six overs and Salman Nazar took 2/47 in 8.4 overs.

Canada, batting first, posted 207/7 as a number of batsmen contributed without dominating at the crease. The TT bowlers, led by the spinners, contained the Canada batsmen throughout as boundaries were hard to come by. In fact, Canada did not hit any sixes during their innings.

After Canada were restricted to 44/2 in the ninth over, a solid partnership between Bhavindu Adhihetty and Harsh Thaker put Canada in a comfortable position on 94/2 in the 20th over. However, when Adhihetty was bowled for 32 by Emrit the innings lost some momentum.

The TT pacers were the leading wicket-takers for the Red Force on this occasion, with Emrit snatching 3/58 in 10 overs and Ravi Rampaul taking 2/41 in ten overs.

The spinners supported the pacers as the trio of Imran Khan, Pierre and Sunil Narine all kept the scoring down. Khan and Narine were not among the wickets, but only conceded 37 and 34 runs respectively in their ten-over spells. Pierre took 2/30 in ten overs. Canada captain David Jacobs topscored with 37 off 57 deliveries with one four, and Navneet Dhaliwal also pitched in with 32.