NORTH SOUND, Antigua, CMC – A stroke-filled 88 from Andre Fletcher set Windward Islands up for a 28-run victory in the Caribbean Twenty20 Championship against the Combined Campuses & Colleges yesterday.
Fletcher struck five fours and four sixes from 59 balls, as he propelled Windwards to the highest total in a CT20 match of 189 for three from their allocation of 20 overs in the opening match at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground.
Johnson Charles supported Fletcher with 37 in a first wicket stand of 68, and Keddy Lesporis added 34 in a second wicket stand of 78.
Steady bowling and alert fielding from the Windwards then helped them to restrict the CCC to 161 for eight from their 20 overs, with a handful of batsmen getting starts without carrying-on.
CCC captain Romel Currency top-scored for his side with 39, Miles Bascombe made 36, Floyd Reifer got 24, and Kyle Hope was not out on 21.
Currency and Bascombe are very familiar with each other having opened the batting for Windwards in previous years, and they gave the CCC a confident start with an opening stand of 65.
Windwards and West Indies captain Darren Sammy brought the instability in the CCC inningsmade the breakthrough for his side, when he had Currency caught at square cover in the seventh over.
Bascombe was then run out, when he advanced looking for a single to short mid-wicket, and he failed to beat throw from Sammy – on his follow-through – to the wicketkeeper in the ninth over to leave the CCC 79 for two.
No other CCC batsman could match the effectiveness of the opening pair, and they bled wickets until the equation became impossible.
Earlier, the Windwards top-order batsmen benefitted from the CCC’s sloppiness in the field, and made their opponents pay.
Charles, on zero, gained a reprieve, when Currency at slip dropped him off Kavesh Kantasingh in the first over.
Fletcher reached his 50 from 41 balls with his first six off Nkrumah Bonner over long-on, but buttery-fingered Currency dropped him on 53 at mid-wicket off the same bowler.
Keddy Lesporis benefitted from the generosity of the CCC fielders on 28, when Gilford Moore dropped a difficult chance at deep mid-wicket off Kantasingh.
Lesporis however, failed to make the most of the chance, and was bowled in the 18th over, stepping away to drive a full toss before Fletcher was caught at mid-wicket off the penultimate ball of the innings, mistiming a pull at a full toss from Ryan Austin.
Windwards face English county champions Somerset in their second match on Friday at the same venue, while the CCC meet Jamaica tomorrow.
