By Marlon Munroe
GT&T’s 584-team 10/10 softball competition culminated last Sunday in grand style with Georgetown’s Trophy Stall easily disposing of Corentyne’s Crabwood Creek Unstoppables at the Everest Cricket Club ground.
In front of a large, pumped-up crowd with a party atmosphere, Trophy Stall, who beat Memorex by four runs in the second semi-final, started their innings under lights and eventually reached the 50 mark in 3.5 overs.
Their batters punished the Crabwood Creek bowlers with improvised cricket shots and well played orthodox ones.
Every boundary hit sent the crowd, which was mostly behind the Georgetown-based team, into a frenzy. It also became apparent that with every run scored by Trophy Stall they were placing their opponents under severe pressure, especially since things started to fall apart when the team raced to triple figures in 8.2 overs.
In the end, Randy Ketwaroo was the highest scorer with an undefeated 36 that included three towering sixes and a four; eventual Man-of-the-Match Fazal Rafeek contributed 35 with the same amount of boundaries as his partner while Anand Dindial chipped in with 16. Vibert Dhan, Lalta Persaud and Joshua Garnett each had figures of 1-16 (2), 1-20 (2) and 1-23 (2) respectively.
When Crabwood Creek started their reply they lost their first wicket when the score was one before a 33-run second wicket stand was produced. However, afterwards their batsmen found it difficult to string together decent partnerships to even threaten the Trophy Stall total.
Eventually, the team folded 51 runs short of their mark at 64-7 with Garnett making 28, which consisted of two maximums and a four. He was aided by Darshanan Chitrahar with 19 and an unbeaten 11 from Michael Dhan. Premraj Huran and Gary Singh were the chief wicket takers with 2-12 (2) and 1-16 (2) respectively as three of the Unstoppables’ batsmen failed to trouble the score.
At the presentation ceremony Trophy Stall received the $1 million first prize and a trophy while the Crabwood Creek team was the recipient of $250,000.
The highest individual scorer in the tournament was Richard Latiff with 176 not out while Darren Persaud had the best bowling figures of 7-2; the MVP of the competition was Trophy Stall’s Jagdesh Deosarran with 244 runs and six catches.
Meanwhile, in the first semi-final of the day Cotton Field lost to Crabwood Creek. Cotton Field, batting first, posted 77-5 with Navindra Doodnauth making 24 while Suraj Rasha scored 15. Lalta Persaud was the main wicket taker with 2-13 and he got assistance from Charitar, Dhan and Fabian Seeraj who had a wicket apiece.
In reply, Crabwood Creek’s Garnett made 26 with Charitar and Manohar Ramrattie scoring 17 and 15 respectively in the team’s total of 79-4.
The second semi-final came down to the wire with the Trophy Stall bowlers holding their nerves in the last over to restrict Memorex 71-6 as they chased 77 for victory. When Trophy Stall batted Rafeek top scored with 33 (2×4, 2×6) and Ketwaroo had 17 (2×4); Vivian Da Silva took 1-11.
In reply, Memorex’s Veerasammy Lalbachan fought hard but his undefeated 43 (2×4, 2×6) was in vain as he failed to take his team over the threshold.
In the exhibition match West Indies players Shemaine Campbell (28 not out) and Erva Giddings (23 not out) ensured that their No.68 team reached 62-1 in 6.1 overs as the team chased 61 for victory against GT&T. GT&T put up 60-3 in the first innings with Stephanie Robertson and Carlotta Lee-John making 18 runs apiece; Onita Tello took 2-5 (1) while Giddings accounted for the other wicket.
When No. 68 batted they lost an early wicket but Campbell and Giddings were never threatened by the bowling since they made batting look easy. They were aggressive and in the process showed some West Indies batting class with their stroke play before Campbell chipped down the wicket and dispatched a delivery for four back over the bowler’s head to end the game.
