An entertaining innings of 85 from national middle order batsman Assad Fudadin guided New Line Cavaliers (NLC) to a three-wicket victory over Gizmos and Gadgets Georgetown Pitbulls in the final of the DJ Stress organized Twenty20 cricket festival at the Guyana National Stadium, Provi-dence late Friday night.
Fudadin, who was later named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP), struck seven fours and four sixes from 60 deliveries, as his team scored 152-7 from 19.5 overs, in reply to the Pitbulls’ 151-7 from their 20 overs.
Fudadin, in partnership with national all-rounder Esaun Crandon (07), saw their team’s innings off to a brisk start. The score was 17 without loss in two overs, with Fudadin cutting a short delivery from Trevon Garraway over gully for four, followed by another to third man off Rayon Griffith.
Crandon also got into the boundary scoring act, when he hit Griffith who was a member of the Guyana/ Stanford 2006 championship winning team, past Damion Van Tull, who was stationed at mid-on, for four.
Crandon, facing national all-rounder Christopher Barnwell, who had replaced Griffith at the pavilion end, was run out by Leon Johnson, after surviving a confident lbw appeal.
Skipper Gajanand Singh (14) joined Fudadin and they added 44 for the second wicket, with the latter who was dropped by Orin Forde at fine-leg off Barnwell, pulling Garraway through mid-wicket, followed by a thick outside edge to third man for boundaries.
Fudadin also struck Barnwell over mid-off for four, followed by another four and a six, with the latter coming off a free hit, from the bowling of Steven Jacobs as the pair took exactly five overs for their partnership.
But with the demise of Singh, who was adjudged lbw to Barnwell, NLC quickly lost Paul Wintz (02), national Under-19 all-rounder Jonathan Foo (06), Mahendra Nagamootoo (00) and Andre Percival (00) in four overs. The score was then 81-6.
The men doing the damage were spinners Dion Ferrier and Van Tull who took 2-19 and 1-25 from their four overs. The wicket of Percival who was beaten and bowled as he pushed forward to Van Tull was the gem of them all.
Fudadin, who was on 40 when Percival exited, found a useful ally in Chien Gittens who was there at the end on 19 (1×4) and they took the score to within two runs of victory, before Fudadin was smartly run out by Barnwell in the final over.
Prior to his dismissal, the left-handed Fudadin had raised his 50 with his fifth four off Garraway and after being dropped by Griffith at long-off from the bowling of Van Tull. He hit Forde back over his head for six to push the score to 118-6 in the 17th over.
He was not finished, as Van Tull was sent crashing over long-on and with NLC needing to score 14 from the final over, Gittens tickled Barnwell for four to fine leg.
A big six over backward square leg by Fudadin left NLC needing to score two runs from the final two deliveries of their innings. But Barnwell in his attempt to bowl a slower delivery after running Fudadin out, sprayed the ball down the leg-side to hand his team’s opponents an easy victory.
Being asked to take first strike by NLC, the Pitbulls lost skipper Travis Dowlin who was caught by Anthony Ifill at mid-off, off the bowling of Balram Samaroo for eight.
Barnwell (42; 3×4, 2×6) and Johnson (18) added 66 for the second wicket, with the former who had scored an even century from 58 balls in the Pitbulls first game, pulling Crandon back past him at waist height for four.
He was dropped at mid-off by Percival off the final delivery of the over when on six and made the NLC team pay by hitting Samaroo through mid-wicket for four, before Nagamootoo fielding at short mid-wicket granted him a let-off.
Barnwell rubbed salt into the wounds of NLC, when he struck Crandon over wide long-on for six, while Johnson cut Samaroo through point for three and stood at the other end, as Barnwell hit the next delivery seven rows back for six.
Unfortunately for the Pitbulls, Barnwell was adjudged lbw to Wintz and was quickly followed by Johnson, Forde (11), Troy Gonsalves (06) and Dion Ferrier (08).
But Derwin Christian blasted a 14-ball 27, decorated with one four and a six and along with Rayon Griffith who struck one four in his unbeaten six, added 22 runs from 10 deliveries to push their team to 151-7 at the end of their 20 overs.
Percival engineered the collapse by taking 3-17, while Nagamootoo took 2-40. But in the end, it was Fudadin who showed the Pitbulls had no bite.
In their semifinal matches, the Pitbulls defeated East Coast Power Stout by 81 runs, following Barnwell’s century, as they piled up 16-5 from their 20 overs and restricted the opposition for 115 from 18.4 overs.
Barnwell blasted 10 fours and five sixes from 58 balls, while Dowlin struck six fours in his 34 balls for 44, as they added 94 from 11.2 overs, before Dowlin was bowled by Videsh Lall.
Johnson(21) joined Barnwell and they added 78 for the second wicket from 6.2 overs. Barnwell, who took 36 balls to register his first 50, which included five fours and two sixes, only needed another 21 for his second and he hit a further five fours and three sixes.
Skipper Zaheer Mohammed (2-32) and Lall (2-37) were the principle wicket takers for the East Coast Power Stout team, who found the bowling of Barnwell (2-9) and Van Tull (2-16) too much to negotiate. Apart from Wasim Haslim’s 48-ball 50 (5×4; 1×6) and Vishnu Ramjeet’s 15, no other batsman reached double figures.
In the East Bank Igloo Jaguars/NLC semifinal, Fudadin starred with the bat hitting an unbeaten 46 (3×6; 1×4) to steer his team to a seven-wicket victory.
