Trinidad, Jamaica victorious

The weather was promising as the penultimate day of the 4th Regional Blind Cricket Tournament continued at the National Stadium, Providence yesterday morning.

Clean sweep by Jamaican batsman Jason Ricketts as he directs the ball to yet another boundary against the home side.

In the first game of the day Trinidad and Tobago defeated Barbados taking all 10 wickets off 18 overs in what seemed to be one of the closest matches of the competition.

Ricardo Manning made excellent strides as the opening batsman, laying away several boundaries in the first three overs. After the Barbadian star player’s progress to 55 runs it all seemed to go downhill from there when he left the pitch.

The Trinidadians maintained a strong fielding and bowling side throughout the game, striking down the Barbadian batsmen one after the other. In the 18th over Barbados put up 124 runs for their counterparts to chase.

Trinidad and Tobago wrapped it up in 15.5 overs with only three wickets falling. The man-of-the-match went to Keith Baptiste with 26 runs. His wicket was taken by female player Cheryl Griffith in the fourth over.

A team effort from midfielders in yesterday’s game against Jamaica. Guyana was defeated by last year’s joint champions Jamaica.

Rajendra Ramnarine and Sheldon Phillips scored 23 and 26 runs consecutively. One run did the trick in the 15th over, putting Trinidad and Tobago in a great position as this year’s champions.

In the second spinoff Jamaica defeated Guyana by the fourth over after making a mere 85 runs from 20 overs.

The Guyanese team relied on B1 (totally blind) player Leroy Phillips to put 12 runs on the board while Jamaica provided 46 wides and 5 no balls to reach the eventual score. The game ended at 5.3 overs, Jamaica having bettered the score of their opponents with 87 runs.

Greg Stuart was the only wicket taker in the match and saw Kevin Douglas, Robert Weeks, Patrick Howard and opening batsman Oliver Kerr all being run out.

Coach for the Guyana team Bharrat Mangru said the team’s performance was quite disappointing, observing the scoreboard after 20 overs.

“I think our running between the wickets was disappointing and Jamaica bowled and fielded well.”

Mangru did not elaborate on the technical aspects of yesterday’s  game but said that a lot of work had to be done while making the team more close knit.

It was man-of-the-match Jason Ricketts who contributed 44 runs in partnership with Denol Shim, propelling their team to a fantastic win. Guyana were unable to stop the force of the two men who stood their ground after the fifth over.

Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica will clash at the national stadium tomorrow morning in what will be an action packed game between the two strongest teams in the tournament.

Meanwhile on Friday the West Indies Blind Cricket Council (WIBCC) and Guyana Blind Cricket Association have organised a friendly match between WIBCC members and Guyana national players. It is not yet clear which players would be selected for the match but more details will be released at a later date.