… both teams exit Super50  tournament
KAVESH Kantasingh and Floyd Reifer combined with ball and bat to enable Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) to defeat joint defending champions Leeward Islands by four wickets in their third and final preliminary round match at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, yesterday. However, despite the win, both CCC who upset Trinidad and Tobago by five wickets in their first-round encounter, before going under to Jamaica in their next match, and the winless Leeward Islands made their exit out of the tournament as T&T defeated Jamaica by 37 runs to book a semifinal spot.
Asked to bat first in hazy conditions, the Leeward Islands who shared the title last year with Barbados reached for the first time in the tournament, passed the 150 run mark, reaching 174 before they were bowled out in the final over.
Jahmar Hamilton (45) and Jaison Peters 40 were the principal scorers against the bowling of Kantasingh who took 6 for 26 from 12 overs of control left-arm spin while Ryan Austin had 2 for 36 from 10.2 overs.
Thanks to Floyd Reifer’s unbeaten 52 (77b, 3×4, 2×6) and Kyle Mayers’ robust 31 (41b, 2×6), CCC reached 150 for 6 from 33.1 overs, after being asked to score 148 from 34 overs on the Duckworth/Lewis method, following a rain interruption that lasted for 118 minutes.
Having lost Austin Richards 17 (2×4), Chesney Hughes (1), skipper Javia Liburd 25 (42b, 2×4) and Steve Liburd (1) which left them precariously placed on 50 for 4 at the end of their 18th over, the Leeward Islands looked as if they would not reach the 100-run mark for the third successive match.
However, Peters and Hamilton turned their fortunes around, adding 76 important runs for the fifth wicket from 19.4 overs, before Hamilton got a rush of blood after hitting five fours and a big six off Akeem Dewar over long on and was lbw to Mayers.
Peters followed shortly after when he was caught by Miles Bascombe at deep midwicket off Kantasingh who proceeded to remove the next three batsmen including Mali Richards (18), before Austin bowled Jason Campbell to wrap up the Leeward Islands’ innings.
CCC did not fare better in their reply, losing skipper Romel Currency and Miles Bascombe for 11 and 12 respectively to be 23 for 2 in the fifth over, before the heavens opened and forced the players off the field at 40 for 2, with Nekoli Parris on 12 and Reifer 5.
When play resumed, they pushed the score to 46 before Parris was caught at the wicket by Peters off Justin Athanaze for 16 and when Ryan Wiggins did not respond to Reifer’s call for a single to short fine leg and was run-out by the full length of the pitch for 6, CCC were 56 for 4 in the 16th over.
Mayers joined Reifer and just as he did against T&T in the first round, repaired the damage by adding 66 for the fifth wicket, with both batsmen hitting Athanaze for six in the 29th over, at the completion of which CCC were needed to score 45 runs to win.
Mayers went shortly after and he was followed by Jamal Smith who was lbw to Martin, but Reifer kept his cool to hit the first delivery of the final over back over the head of Athanaze for six, to not only raise his half century off 78 deliveries with three fours and two sixes, but also secure the victory for CCC.
Martin ended with 3 for 26 from eight overs for Leeward Islands who lost all three of their matches in the tournament.

SCORECARD

LEEWARD ISLANDS innings
J. Liburd c Dewar b Kantasingh    25
A. Richards c Parris b Austin    17
C. Hughes c Reifer b Kantasingh    1
J. Peters c Bascombe b Kantasingh    40
S. Liburd c wkp. J. Smith b Dewar    1
J. Hamilton lbw Mayers    45
M. Richards b Kantasingh    18
J. Athanaze c Moore b Kantasingh    11
L. Baker c Mayers b Kantasingh    5
A. Martin not out    0
J. Campbell b Austin    0
Extras: (w-8, lb-2, nb-1)    11
Total: (all out off 49.2 overs)    174
Fall of wickets: 1-39, 2-43, 3-46, 4-50, 5-126, 6-156, 7-156, 8-169, 9-173.
Bowling: Moore 4-0-25-0 (w-2), Kantasingh 12-2-26-6 (w-1), Austin 10.2-0-36-2 (nb-1), Dewar 7-0-27-1 (w-2), Parris 8-0-28-0, Mayers 8-0-30-1 (w-3).

CCC innings
R. Currency stp. Wkp. Peters b Martin    11
M. Bascombe lbw Baker    12
N. Parris c wkp. Peters b Athanaze    16
F. Reifer not out    52
R. Wiggins run-out    6
K. Mayers c Campbell b Martin    31
J. Smith lbw Martin    5
A. Dewar not out    5
Extras: (w-7, lb-4, b-1)    12
Total: (for 6 wickets, off 33.1 overs)    150
Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-23, 3-46, 4-56, 5-122, 6-133.
Bowling:  Baker 7-0-35-1, Martin 8-0-26-3 (w-1), Athanaze 6.1-0-35-1 (w-2), Campbell 6-0-21-0, Hughes 3-0-14-0 (w-4), M. Richards 3-0-14-0-