TRINIDAD and Tobago Red Force team continue their winning streak when they registered a thoroughly one-sided nine-wicket victory over newcomers ICC Americas in their NAGICO Super50 Zone A second round match at the Queen’s Park Oval yesterday.Winning the toss and batting first, the ICC Americas were bundled out for a paltry 81 in 26 overs; their second score below 100 runs in the annual 50-overs-a-side after they were dismissed for 76 against the Jamaica Scorpions during the first round encounter on January 9.
T&T Red Force lost one wicket, that of opener Kyle Hope, bowled by Danial Ahmed for 40; with only 19 runs still required for victory.
West Indies Test wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin, in his first match since returning from the Test tour Down Under; batted at the number three position and finished the match in fine style with two consecutive fours and a massive six off left-arm spinner Danial Ahmed. He remained undefeated on 18 while opener Kjorn Ottley was also unbeaten on 24 when victory was sealed with 37.1 overs remaining.
T&T Red Force cruised to 84 for 1 off 12.5 overs and counted four victories overall plus bonus points to lead Zone A on 17 points and advance to the first semi-final carded for next week Wednesday at the same venue.
When the ICC Americas batted, skipper Jason Mohamed utilised the services of medium pacer Reyad Emrit at the Northern end in tandem with off-spinning all-rounder Narsingh Deonarine at the Southern or Brian Lara Pavilion end.
Deonarine was very tight and frugal and created immense pressure on the North American batsmen who succumbed to attacking shots against Emrit, who scalped Steven Taylor, caught by wicketkeeper Steven Katwaroo for 3 (1/4, 4.3 overs) and followed up with the wicket of captain Nitish Kumar, caught by Kjorn Ottley for two runs (2/10, 6.1 overs).
Deonarine (4-1-6-0) was replaced by another Guyana-born Marlon Richards who prised out Akeem Dodson for 8 (3/24, 9.3 overs). Srimantha Wijeyeratne and Alex Amsterdam shared a 25-run fourth-wicket partnership when Deonarine was re-introduced into the attack and he made the breakthrough by having Amsterdam adjudged lbw for five (5/49, 17.3 overs) and had analysis of 8-1-13-1.
Leg-spinner Imran Khan was introduced and he mopped up the lower order and finished with impressive returns of 5-1-25-4 while left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein also shared the wickets with 3-0-6-2. Khan was voted Man-of-the-Match.
In the other Zone A match, Barbados Pride whipped Jamaica Scorpions by 73 runs at the National Cricket Centre, Couva.
Former West Indies ODI opener Dwayne Smith topscored with 86 (101 balls, 10×4) and led the charge for the Barbadians who rallied to 246 for 9 off their allotted 50 overs. Shane Dowrich 46, Jonathan Carter 16, skipper Jason Holder 19, Ashley Nurse 23 not out and Sulieman Benn 16 not out were the other contributors. Jerome Taylor (9-0-30-2) and off-spinner John Campbell (10-0-57-3) were the main wicket-takers.
The Jamaican Scorpions started encouragingly and posted 63 for the first wicket partnership. But off-spinner Ashley Nurse effected the breakthrough when wicketkeeper Dowrich stumped Campbell for 42 in the ninth over.
From such a strong position, the Scorpions succumbed to the wiles of Nurse (10-2-36-2), Sulieman Benn (9.5-1-26-2), Jomel Warrican (10-1-32-3) and Carter (10-0-26-3) and folded up for 173 all out in 46.5 overs. They lost all ten wickets for an addition of 110 runs and lost their second spot as well to the Barbados Pride outfit, who will clash with the T&T Red Force tomorrow (Sunday) at the Queen’s Park Oval in the decisive Zone A final round encounter.
With the impressive victory, Barbados Pride move up to second position on 14 points while the Scorpions remained on ten and slipped to third position.

By BRIJ PARASNATH