Bridgetown, Barbados – Four bowlers – Royston Crandon, Hamza Riazuddin, Alfonso Thomas and Ravi Rampaul – have taken five wickets apiece in this year’s West Indies Cricket Board’s T20 tournament after the Antigua leg of matches.
Rampaul took all five of his against Canada as he registered the tournament’s best bowling figures of 5 for 9.
The Trinidad fast bowler’s figures are also the best regional T20 bowling figures by any bowler, bettering Jerome Taylor’s 5 for 10 against Bermuda.
Last year’s second leading wicket-taker and Player of the Tournament – Devendra Bishoo the Guyanese leg spinner – has four wickets thus far and is bunched with five other bowlers who have the same number of wickets.
They are: Nkrumah Bonner, Esuan Crandon, Ryan Hinds, Christopher Wood and Sherwin Ganga.
Hampshire Royals duo, Johann Myburgh and Simon Jones sit atop the batting and bowling charts respectively.
Myburgh has accumulated 135 runs from three matches with a best of 76 against the winless Leeward Islands.
Behind him is Jamaican stroke maker Marlon Samuels with 122 runs inclusive of a brutal unbeaten 80 in a losing effort against Combined Campuses and Colleges.
Lendl Simmons (114), Andre Fletcher (97) and Miles Bascombe (95) complete the top five run getters in the tournament thus far.
Grenadian power hitter, Fletcher, has so far registered the tournament’s highest score of 88 against CCC in the opening game. His was just one run shy of the overall CT20 record for highest individual score which is held by Jamaican Danza Hyatt.
The second best effort with the bat in CT20 2011 is Simmons’ 83 against Leewards during which he pummelled five sixes and an equal number of fours.
Jones, the former England quick, who has bowled with impressive pace has pocketed nine wickets with a best of 4 for 10 in a Star-of-the-Match performance against Barbados.
In 2010 Trinidad & Tobago opener Adrian Barath topped the batting aggregate with 173 runs while Guyanese off spinner Lennox Cush bagged the most wickets (11).
There were 11 fifties all told in 2010.
After 12 matches this year, and with another 12 to be played at the Kensington Oval, six half centuries have been scored.
Only Rampaul has recorded a five-fer this year. There were two five-fers in 2010, one to Jamaican swing bowler Krishmar Santokie (5 for 24) and the other to Barbadian spinner Ashley Nurse (5 for 35).
