PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – West Indies cricketers, led by opening batsman Chris Gayle, registered an 18-run victory over Trinidad and Tobago in their ‘Balls of Fire’ Twenty20 Challenge match on Saturday night.
Before a sold out crowd at Queen’s Park Oval, T&T — with batting legend Brian Lara as skipper — won the toss and inserted the opposition. West Indies tallied 127 for nine in their allotted 20 overs and then restricted the home side to 109 all out in 19.3 overs. For West Indies, Guyanese opening batsman Sewnarine Chattergoon top-scored with 20 off 17 balls, including a six and a four.
Other good contributions came from Devon Smith (18) and guest player Daron Cruickshank (18).
Discarded West Indies left-arm spinner Dave Mohammed was the leading bowler for T&T with three for 15, while fast bowler Ravi Rampaul picked up two for 22. In response, T&T fell short and were even unable to bat out the allotted 20 overs.
Daren Ganga top-scored for T&T with 29 off 25 balls which included three boundaries. None of the other batsmen offered resistance to the probing pace and spin attack.
Lara, who retired from international cricket in 2007, was playing his first ever Twenty20 match in the region, and scored 16. Kieron Pollard also got 16. Gayle was the top bowler for his team with three for 20, while spinners Dinanath Ramnarine (2-13) and Sulieman Benn (2-14) evenly shared four wickets.Double world-record holder Lara showed glimpses of the elegance that made him a premier world batsman during his stay at the crease which spanned 33 minutes and 27 balls. He received a rousing ovation after his dismissal when he was caught by Cruickshank at the long-on fence of Benn’s bowling.
Another player who had the crowd in a frenzy was national footballer Dwight Yorke, who opened the batting and scored a disciplined nine runs off 17 deliveries.
Yorke also had a stint behind the stumps when T&T fielded. Several West Indies players, who missed the recent Digicel Home Series against Bangladesh because of a contracts dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), were on show. Brothers Dwayne and Darren Bravo, and wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin all played for T&T.
The Twenty20 fixture was followed by a friendly football match between a T&T Strike Squad and a West Indies Players Association (WIPA) XI.
The event was organised by WIPA and the Lay Management Group, an entity run by Lara and football legend Dwight Yorke
