KINGSTOWN, St Vincent, CMC – Trinidad and Tobago’s quest to do the double got off to the perfect start when they thoroughly defeated the Leeward Islands by a mammoth 176 runs in the first round of the Regional Under-19 50-over Championship here on Thursday.
Fresh from capturing the three-day title, T&T produced a solid batting performance on their way to posting the day’s highest total of 249 for seven from their 50 overs.
Leonardo Julien topscored with 82 and Joshua James who stroked an unbeaten 53, were the mainstay of T&T’s innings.
Julien, who faced 114 balls and smashed four boundaries and four sixes, shared in two half-century partnerships to help guide T&T from a spot of bother early on. He joined forces with Crystian Thurton (26) to add 62 runs for the third wicket after they had slipped to 34-2.
Following the dismissals of Thurton and Mbeki Joseph (9), he and James then added 60 runs in 12 overs to help push the score to 189-5.
Once Julien lost his wicket trying to up the tempo, James found a worthy partner in Rivaldo Ramlogan who smashed a quickfire 35 from just 20 balls to help them up to their eventual score.
James’ hit two fours and one six in his unbeaten 64-ball knock.
The Leewards never came close to mounting a serious challenge, with Teron Jadoo and Justyn Gangoo running through the middle and lower-order to skittle them out for just 73.
With the score on 43-2, the Leewards incredibly lost their last eight wickets for just 30 runs, with Elroy Francis, who scored 32 being the only double-digit contributor.
Jadoo finished with the spectacular figures of three wickets for one run, while Gangoo snagged 3-14.
The Windward Islands recorded a six-wicket victory over Jamaica.
It was a comfortable win for the Windward Islands who dismissed Jamaica for a paltry 159. They then motored along at almost six runs at over on their way to scoring 164-4 in 27.5 overs.
Openers Kimani Melius, who topscored with 86 and Jahseon Alexander 58, put on 146 for the first wicket to set the Windwards on the path to victory.
