…Guyanese team  heading for  Champions League in South Africa
IT was a clash befitting a big final. It was a night when both teams displayed nerves befitting a big final.

And in the end, it came down to the one man who held his nerve under pressure and played the innings befitting a big final.

Jonathan Foo, the 19 year-old Guyanese lower-order discovery of Chinese descent exploded in sensational fashion as wickets clattered at the other end to pull his side out from the precipice and steal a one-wicket victory in the Caribbean T20 final. Guyana are headed to Johannesburg for the Champions League.

Foo arrived at the crease with his side’s hopes all but sealed. The Bajan spinners, led by Ashley Nurse, were choking the life out of Guyana’s batting.

(Scores:Guyana 135 for 9 (Foo 42*, Nurse 5-35) beat Barbados 134 for 5 (Carter 57*, Bishoo 2-14) by one wicket)
Guyana’s last four batsmen needed 59 off the last five overs and things got tougher when Lennox Cush and Esuan Crandon fell in quick succession. 50 required from 21. Barbados were already celebrating when Foo began his onslaught. Nurse was lofted over long-off, but the smiles were still on the Bajan faces.

Dwayne Smith was worked for fours to third man and square-leg in the 18th over, but surely Guyana could not pull this off from here? At least not after they lost their ninth wicket, Nurse’s fifth, with 26 required off 11?

Foo responded by launching Nurse for a huge six over long-off. The smiles were replaced by frowns now. And then came the defining moment. Nurse delivered a low full-toss on leg stump.

Foo got under it and smashed it high in the direction of deep midwicket where the fielder readied himself to take the catch that would have given Barbados the title.

It was not to be – he fumbled the catch and palmed it over the ropes. The force was with Foo, and as Barbados found to their despair, they had just dropped the Caribbean T20.

With 11 to get off the last over, Foo smashed Javon Searles through point for two fours, reminiscent of Lance Klusener’s boundaries in the last over of that World Cup semi-final.

Everyone knows how that story ended, but Foo had not come this far to return disappointed. More importantly, he had for company a number 11 who held his nerves. Off the fourth ball, Foo tapped for a single to mid-on that gave Devendra Bishoo strike.

Two required off two. Searles aimed for a yorker on leg stump and did not miss it by much, and Bishoo squeezed it out to midwicket for one. With the whole of the Caribbean watching him closely, Sulieman Benn fumbled a regulation stop to allow a second run. Foo charged back to the non-striker’s end and threw his arms aloft.

The Guyanese supporters invaded the field and surrounded their hero, while Ryan Hinds, the Barbados captain was down on the ground holding his head in despair.

No one could have anticipated such a dramatic denouement given the sluggish and nervy start to the chase of 135.

Guyana’s approach was inexplicable: perhaps they thought they had the match in their bag at the halfway mark; perhaps the high stakes involved made them nervous. They did away with the experimental batting line-up that worked wonders in the semi-final win.

Travis Dowlin, who batted with refreshing freedom in that game, played well within himself  against bowling that was at best steady to begin with. Searles sprayed wides down the leg side and over the batsmen’s heads, but Benn was at the batsmen from the start and for a change, not with his sledging.

He had Dowlin’s scalp in the fourth over, pinning him on the crease with an arm ball for 8 off 17 balls. Sewnarine Chattergoon did not fare much better, pottering around for 9 off 15 balls before falling in Hinds’ first over.

All of a sudden, Guyana were staring at a required rate in excess of eight for their last 12 overs – still no cause for alarm by Twenty20 standards, but not in these conditions against a determined attack.

Smith kept things tight at one end, and the spin trio of Ashley Nurse, Benn and Hinds did the rest as Guyana’s middle- order struggled to make up for their openers’ lapses.

Runs came in singles until the 12th over when Ramnaresh Sarwan and Narsingh Deonarine swung Hinds for a six and a four each. Things came unstuck in the next over though, as Ashley Nurse got Sarwan and Barnwell to hole out.

When Hinds took out Deonarine in the 14th over, Guyana had lost half their side with fewer than half the required runs on the board. How fortunate were they to still have Foo in their ranks.

Both teams disregarded the conditions at the start of the game: despite the possibility of showers, Barbados elected to bat, and despite the bounce and movement on offer, Guyana stuck to using offspinner Cush with the new ball. Initially his lengths were all over the place and Dale Richards capitalized to kick-start Barbados’ innings.

Esuan got sharp movement but repeatedly slipped his inswingers down the leg side. Round one to Barbados, but things were about to change quickly.

In the third over, Cush got Richards to top-edge an innocuous full toss to short third-man. That brought the left-handed Jonathan Carter to the crease and just like that Esuan transformed from inconsistent to unplayable.

Carter rarely got bat on ball and his early troubles against Crandon set the tone for his entire innings, though it was to his credit that he did not throw it away. Christopher Barnwell struck after the Powerplays with a smart change of pace, foxing Kirk Edwards into an early waft. Thereafter Guyana began to take control through Bishoo’s skidding legbreaks that were consistently landed short of a length outside off.

Carter played and missed too often to revive the innings and was guilty of not rotating the strike enough. Carter’s momentum was subdued further by a short ball from Barnwell that thudded into his box and had him in strife for a while. Holder tried to inject some urgency by coming down the track to pick boundaries.

The ploy did not work against Bishoo and he holed out to deep midwicket in the 15th over. Dwayne Smith also failed under pressure, slogging Bishoo straight to Foo at long on.

Barbados desperately needed to finish on a high and they succeeded by stealing 33 runs off the last three overs. Three sixes were struck in that passage of play, including a monster blow from Carlo Morris that nearly landed in the commentary box, and a last ball six over midwicket by Carter.
That was after he had rEached a battling fifty off 60 balls, getting a couple after heaving straight to Foo at cow corner. Unfortunately for Barbados, it was to be Foo’s only mistake for the night. (Cricinfo).

Caption: Man-of-the match Jonathan Foo lashed an unbeaten 42 from  17 balls with four fours and three sixes.

The Caribbean Twenty 20 trophy that the Guyanese cricketers will be returning home with after their fantatic triumph at the  Queen’s Park Oval last evening.

BARBADOS (20 overs maximum)
D. Richards c R. Crandon b Cush 16
K. Edwards b Barnwell 16
J. Carter not out 57
A. Holder c Barnwell b Bishoo 14
D.R. Smith c Foo b Bishoo 2
+C. Morris b R. Crandon 7
L. Babb not out 12
Extras (lb3, w7) 10
TOTAL (5 wkts, 20 overs) 134
*R. Hinds, A. Nurse, J. Searles, S. Benn did not bat
Fall of wickets: 1-27 (Richards, 12.5 overs); 2-63 (Edwards, 8.3); 3-92 (Holder, 14.6); 4-98 (Smith, 16.3); 5-107 (+Morris, 17.2)
Bowling: Cush 4-0-47-1; E. Crandon 4-0-23-0 (w4); Barnwell 4-0-19-1; Bishoo 4-0-14-2 (w2)
; R. Crandon 4-0-28-1 (w1)
GUYANA (target: 135 off 20 overs)
T. Dowlin lbw b Benn 8
S. Chattergoon c Carter b *Hinds 9
*R. Sarwan c Carter b Nurse 26
N. Deonarine c Nurse b *Hinds 21
C. Barnwell c Searles b Nurse 0
R. Crandon c Smith b Nurse 3
J. Foo not out 42
L. Cush b Benn 2
E. Crandon b Nurse 6
+D. Christian c Carter b Nurse 7
D. Bishoo not out 2
Extras (b1, lb1, w6, nb1) 9
TOTAL (9 wkts, 19.5 overs) 135
Fall of wickets: 1-17 (Dowlin, 3.5 overs); 2-38 (Chattergoon, 7.6); 3-62 (*Sarwan, 12.1); 4-63 (Barnwell, 12.5); 5-72 (Deonarine, 13.6); 6-76 (R. Crandon, 14.6); 7-78 (Cush, 15.2); 8-85 (E. Crandon, 16.3); 9-109 (+Christian, 18.1)
Bowling: Searles 3.5-0-26-0 (nb1, w4); Benn 4-0-21-2 (w1); D.R. Smith 4-0-21-0 (w1); *Hinds 4-0-30-2; Nurse 4-0-35-5
Series: Guyana win the Caribbean T20 Championship
Man-of-the-Match: Jonathan Foo (Guyana)
Most Valuable Player: Davendra Bishoo (Guyana)