North/Tobago beat Guyana in group stage

NORTH/TOBAGO defeated Guyana by 12 runs, on Saturday, in a prelude to last evening’s final, of the inaugural Udecott T10 cricket tournament at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy, Tarouba.

This match was the first of a quadruple-header on Saturday’s schedule.North/Tobago posted a score of 92 runs for six wickets with openers Sunil Narine (23) and Mario Belcon (21) leading the way, while Tion Webster made 15 and Akeal Hosein 10 not out.

Pacer Keemo Paul was the main wicket-taker for Guyana with two wickets for ten runs.

In their reply, Guyana were restricted to 80/8 with opener Chandrapaul Hemraj (36) and Romario Shepherd (19 not out) being the only batsmen to reach double figures.

Pacer Rayad Emrit was adjudged as the Man of the Match on the basis of his haul of four wickets for seven runs. Off-spinner Narine (2/6) and left-arm spinner Hosein (2/14) took the other scalps.

North/Tobago got their second win of the day, courtesy of a four-wicket result over South/Central.

In Saturday’s third scheduled fixture, South/Central notched 114/3 with opener Kjorn Ottley hitting 45 (24 balls, six fours and two sixes), Mark Deyal 27 and captain Denesh Ramdin 22 not out. Narine claimed 2/17 for North/Tobago.

Narine returned with the bat to lash 32 (15 deliveries, three fours and three sixes), while there were useful knocks from Terrance Hinds (18 not out), Hosein (18) and Webster (14) as North/Tobago reached 115/6 with an over to spare.Off-spinner Jon Russ Jagessar claimed 3/9 for South/Central.

Guyana assured themselves of a spot in the final after defeating the Windward Islands by 41 runs, in the day’s finale.Left-handed openers Trevon Griffith and Hemraj put on a stand of 97 in 6.4 overs with Griffith hitting 68 (25 balls, two fours and eight sixes) and Hemraj scoring 38 (18 balls, two fours and four sixes).Denis George took 3/19 and Kesrick Williams 2/7 for the Windwards.

However, the Windwards were unable to keep up with the run-rate as they were restricted to 81/5 in their allotted ten overs.

Leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo (3/9) and Gudakesh Moti (2/7) had the Windwards tottering on 18/5 in 4.1 overs but Ryan John (30 off 19 balls) and Jamal James (26 off 18 balls) avoided any further collapse.

This result was the Windwards’ second defeat on the day, after they fell to an eight-wicket defeat against South/Central.The Windwards posted a total of 104/5 with Alick Athanaze making an unbeaten 54 (27 balls, six fours and three sixes) and John scoring 32 (18 balls, three fours and two sixes).

Left-arm spinner Yannick Ottley led the way for South/Central with 3/20.South/Central responded with 105/2 in 8.3 overs with Kjorn Ottley scoring 32, Ramdin 30 not out and Nicholas Sookdeosingh 29 not out.