… Sunshine aiming to stop Dant’s dominance
By Frederick Halley
TORONTO, Canada – The Ontario Softball Cricket League (OSCL) 2018 season climaxes on Sunday at the Ashtonbee playing fields with the Conference A and B playoffs championships.
Defending champions Dant who will be aiming for their fifth consecutive championship and archrivals Sunshine will face off in Conference A while Car Tec and Wakenaam clash in Conference B in what is expected to be two hotly contested finals.
Both Dant and Car Tec are already assured of the regular season (20 overs) titles in their respective divisions and are eager to add the playoffs championships to their collections.
In a fiercely contested conference A, Dant tallied 78 points to edge Sunshine on 76 while Car Tec finished conference B with 83 points, three more than Restoration Warriors who placed second on 80 and Wakenaam third on 67. Restoration Warriors were, however. upstaged by Wakenaam in last Sunday’s playoffs semi-finals while Car Tec made light work of GTA Storm in the other encounter.
Apart from taking top honours in the regular season, Dant were also crowned the Caribbean Sensation 10/10 winners but, like they did last year, failed in their bid to cart off the Norman Sue Bakery 15-over tournament which saw Sunshine emerging as champions.
Last year’s final saw Dant defeat EC Bannas by four wickets, which was engineered by a brilliant all-round performance by former Guyana captain Damodar Daesrath, who hit a top-score of 31. He also claimed three for 15 as his team reached 139 for six in reply to their opponents’ 137 for eight, made in their allotted 20 overs.
Daesrath will be at the helm of Dant but will be missing the services of two key players in Hemnarine Chattergoon and Looknauth Ramsuchit, who have since joined Sunshine.
Nevertheless, Dant still boast the likes of former Guyana and West Indies One-day player Royston Crandon, no-nonsense opener Farouk Hussain, Riaz Kadir, Munniram Karran, Satrohan ‘Blade’ Balkarran and Aftab ‘Maxie’ Shamshudeen.
Led by Anil Mahadeo, Sunshine, who are also enjoying a fantastic year, having also beaten Dant in both the regular season and the 15-over tournament, also include star all-rounder Mahendranauth ‘Bobby’ Parasnauth, opener Anil Ramoutar, middle-order batsman Bernard Kartick and all-rounder Avinash Sookdeo, all capable players.
A new champion will be crowned in the much-anticipated Conference B final when Car Tec and Wakenaam square off, a clash which features several players from the Cinderella County, Essequibo and with bragging rights at stake.
Wakenaam have already taken care of defending champions Restoration Warriors, but will face a Car Tec team whose batting is built around the consistent Rovendra Mandolall, who slammed an unbeaten 83 versus GTA Storm in last Sunday’s semis. In addition to Mandolall, the batting also hinges around Anil Veerasammy, Rakesh Dyal and skipper Bharrat Latchman.
Not to be outdone, the Ravin Babulall-led Wakenaam side are banking on seasoned campaigners in Surendra Persaud, Rabindra Persaud, Fizul Haniff, Raja Pooran and Surendra Beepat in their quest to hoist the championship trophy.