PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Alick Athanaze carved out a second successive hundred and Kavem Hodge notched the second of his career but rain had the final say in condemning Combined Campuses and Colleges to a 50-run defeat here yesterday.
Sent in at Queen’s Park Oval in the Zone A contest of the Super50 Cup, Windward Islands Volcanoes gathered 300 for four off their 50 overs, the left-handed Athanaze punching 140 from 129 balls to follow up his maiden 133 against Guyana Harpy Eagles on Monday.
He was joined by the right-handed Hodge who hit an unbeaten 106 off 131 deliveries, counting four fours and a couple of fours.
Together, the pair posted a massive 208 for the second wicket which proved to be the plank of the innings, Andre Fletcher coming afterwards to lash a 19-ball unbeaten 30 and provide added impetus.
In reply, CCC were hardly challenging at 109 for four after 23 overs when the rain arrived to end the game prematurely, with the chasers well behind on Duckworth-Lewis-Stern. Demario Richards (24) and Kirstan Kallicharan (23) both got starts while captain, former Test skipper Denesh Ramdin, was unbeaten on 21 from 19 balls when the innings was curtailed.
For Volcanoes, the victory was their second following their 28-run win over Harpy Eagles while CCC tasted their second defeat, the first coming in a seven-wicket result against Trinidad and Tobago Red Force earlier this week.
Volcanoes suffered an early blow when West Indies opener Johnson Charles, dropped before he had scored off the morning’s second delivery, was taken at cover by Matthew Forde off seamer Michail Powell for nine.
However, that was the last sight of real success for CCC as Athanaze and Hodge dominated their attack.
The 23-year-old Athanaze belted 16 fours and three sides and reached his hundred off 99 deliveries in the 34th over while Hodge was more measured, his knock containing four fours and two sixes, as he brought up triple figures off 127 balls in the final over.
When three wickets went down for 28 runs, Fletcher clobbered two sixes in a 48-run, unbroken fifth wicket stand with Hodge.
At 39 for two in the seventh over in reply, CCC seemed poised to collapse before Kallicharan and Jonathan Drakes (17) put on 41 for the third wicket.
They fell in successive overs leaving CCC to rebuild again before the rain arrived.
