PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – West Indies off-spinner Sunil Narine flopped as star-studded Queen’s Park collapsed to a shock eight-wicket defeat to PowerGen in the Twenty20 Championship final here Saturday night.
Batting first at Guaracara Park, Queen’s Park posted 131 from their 20 overs and in reply, PowerGen stormed to victory in the 17th over.
Boasting an array of stars including Narine, West Indies speedster Fidel Edwards and Jamaica and West Indies left-arm spinner Nikita Miller, Queen’s Park were installed as heavy favourites to take the title.
And they seemed on course when Windies A left-hander Justin Guillen stroked 57 in an opening stand of 75 with Test batsman Adrian Barath (18).
Captain Guillen faced 33 balls and struck eight fours and two sixes but Queen’s Park suffered a sudden collapse, losing six wickets for 49 runs. In the end, they needed Narine’s unbeaten 21 off 22 balls to get up to their eventual total.
Queen’s Park’s strong bowling attack was then put to the sword by former Windies Under-19s batsman Evin Lewis who belted 47 off 36 balls, dominating an opening stand of 49 with Nicholas Sookdeosingh (9).
He smashed four fours and three sixes and was joined by Sherwin Ganga who carved out an unbeaten 42 from 31 deliveries with four boundaries.
Once Lewis departed, Ganga combined with Jason Mohammed (24), another former Young Windies player, in an unbroken 59-run, third wicket stand which saw PowerGen home.
Narine, who will now fly out to join West Indies in the United Kingdom for the ICC Champions Trophy, finished with the unflattering figures of none for 27 from 2.5 overs while Edwards and Miller also finished wicket-less.
