..Jamaica Scorpions crush ICC Americas

By BRIJ PARASNATH
Trinidad and Tobago Red Force maintained their winning ways after overpowering Barbados Pride by nine wickets in their NAGICO Super50 Group A match at the Queen’s Park Oval yesterday.Having crushed Jamaica Scorpions by 84 runs in their opening encounter on Thursday last, the Red Force put on a much more clinical performance to register a comprehensive victory to stay atop the standings.
The Barbados Pride batted first and deposed captain Reyad Emrit removed dangerman Dwayne Smith for four while first match hero Marlon Richards prised out skipper Kevin Stoute (c wktkpr Katwaroo) for a similar score.
Barbados was 14 for 2 after 5.3 overs. There was no recovery and lost wickets at regular interval and were soon tottering at 66 for 6 after 25.4 overs.
Rolston Chase and Justin Greaves halted the slide and featured in 60-run seventh wicket partnership that made the total a bit more respectable for the 2014 champion.
Chase made 50 (84b, 3x4s) while Greaves finished with 31 as the Barbadians were eventually skittled out skittled out for 161 in 49.3 overs.
Emrit (10-0-47-2), Jon Russ Jaggessar (8.3-1-24-3), Yannick Ottley (10-1-31-2), Richards (7-3-10-1) and Akeal Hosein (8-1-26-1) shared the wickets.
In reply, the Red Force suffered an early setback in the first over with the dismissal of Evin Lewis (0), played-on off the third ball of the innings from Greaves.
However, there was no further hiccups for the defending champion outfit as franchise player Kyle Hope (70 not out, 100b, 6x4s, 1×6) and Kjorn Ottley (80 not out, 112b, 11x4s) featured in an unbroken 163-run second wicket partnership that allowed the Red Force team to celebrate a most convincing victory.
T&T Red Force finished with 163 for 1 off 35.5 overs while Kjorn Ottley collected the “Man of Match” award for his unbeaten 80.
Meanwhile, Jamaica Scorpions inflicted a crushing 184-run win over the ICC Americas team in the other Group A match played at the UWI St Augustine campus ground.
Andre McCarthy registered the first century of the 2016 series as he led Jamaica Scorpions 260 for 8 in their allotted 50 overs. He slammed 118 (119b, 11x4s, 4x6s) and was named “Man of Match”.
The ICC Americas team made a big impression against the Barbados Pride in their opening match but were completely outplayed by the Scorpions with leg-spinner Damion Jacobs being the main destroyer with five wickets for 22.
ICC Americas were bundled out for a paltry 76 in 26.4 overs and remain winless at the bottom of the standings. Nitish Kumar topscored with 42.
With their two consecutive victories, the T&T Red Force heads Group A with 10 points while Jamaica Scorpions got an extra bonus point to leapfrog the Barbados Pride for the second spot on five points.