… Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica also register wins

By Brij Parasnath
TRIUMPHANT West Indies Youth player Keemo Paul displayed his all-round prowess and spearheaded Guyana to a thrilling 39-run win over Windward Islands at the Arnos Vale Sports Complex in St Vincent yesterday.In the other matches, Trinidad and Tobago overpowered Leeward Islands at the Stubbs playing field while Jamaica massacred ICC Americas by nine wickets at the Park Hill playing field.
Guyana batted first and compiled 238 for 9 in their allotted 50 overs. Paul batted aggressively and found a reliable partner in Bhaskar Yadram and together they shared a match-winning fourth-wicket partnership that was worth 96 valuable runs and revived Guyana’s fortune after they had lost three early wickets for only 41 runs.
Yadram, who has been the team’s best stabilising force, played another controlled innings before he was run-out for 35 that included four boundaries from the 58 deliveries received.
Paul smashed five sixes and two fours off 64 balls for the top score of 58 while Travis Persaud 20, Raymond Perez 21, Ronaldo AliMohammed 19, Marlon Hubbard 23, Sherfane Rutherford 18 and Ronaldo Renee 12 were the other batsmen who got into double figures.
Ryan John (10-0-39-2), Kassim Peltier (9-0-63-2) and Alick Athanaze (10-1-36-2) were the successful bowlers for Windwards.
In reply, Windwards’ Johann Jeremiah (32), Anil Matthew (39), Athanaze (33) and Johnel Eugene (31 not out) got solid starts but were unable to press on for big scores as Kheshram Seyhodan (10-0-32-3) and Akenie Adams (10-3-38-3) did the early damage while Paul ensured that Guyana kept up the momentum to successfully defend the WICB Regional Under-19 Super50 crown.
Paul completed a very good all-round performance and finished with an analysis of 7.5-0-39-3 while Marlon Hubbard (10-1-34-1) shared in the bowling honours.
In the T&T vs Leewards encounter, opening batsman Keagan Simmons (99) together with skipper Kirstan Kallicharran (43) and Brandon Maharaj (51) rallied Trinidad and Tobago Under-19s to an exciting four-wicket victory.
Leewards batted first and they amassed a formidable 280 for the loss of six wickets in their allotted 50 overs.
Opener Tyrone Williams slammed a belligerent 132 (3×6, 13×4, 139 balls) and featured in a 114-run third-wicket stand with Kofi James who made 50 (1×6, 3×4, 71 balls).
Only medium pacer Negus Smith picked up two wickets for 35 runs.
Chasing a victory target of 281, the Trinidadians prevailed over the islanders with Simmons being the main contributor. He hammered two sixes and twelve fours off 96 balls. He also shared a 104-run third-wicket stand with Kallicharan who hit one six and five fours off 51 balls while Maharaj slammed three sixes and four fours off 50 balls.
The Jamaicans treated the ICC Americas team players with scant respect and taught them a good cricket lesson as they blasted them out for a paltry 133 in 41.1 overs.
Only the Patels – Sagar and Arjun – came through with decent scores of 41 and 32 respectively. Javor Harrison (3 for 46), Miguel Smith (3 for 31) and Tyrone Daley (3 for 14) proved too good for the Combined team and raced to victory with 38.1 overs remaining.
Michael Frew 40, Jordane Hill 42 and Orande Pearson 43 paced Jamaica to 139 for the loss of one wicket in 11.5 overs.