By Colin Benjamin in Barbados
A solid all-round team performance by the Windward Islands propelled them to a five-wicket victory via the Duckworth/Lewis method in the final Group A encounter of the 2012 Caribbean Twenty20 tournament in the early morning hours today at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados.
The Darren Sammy-led Windward Islands, after calling correctly at the coin toss, elected to field first in damp evening conditions, restricted Guyana to 140/8 and chased down their D/L target of 119 thanks to Johnson Charles’ second half-century of the tournament.
This result means that the Windwards join Trinidad and Tobago as the two qualifying teams from this group, into the semi-finals stage of competition that commences tomorrow.
In the early exchanges, Guyana resisted the temptation to draft in Essequibo fast-bowler Ronsford Beaton and remained unchanged, while the Windwards drafted in all-rounder Delorn Johnson in place of their fast-bowling spearhead Nelon Pascal who was having an unproductive tournament.
Action in this mouth-watering contest bowled off in exhilarating fashion with Guyana openers Sewnarine Chattergoon and Trevon Griffith combining to score 19 runs of the opening over from left-arm medium pacer Kenroy Peters.
The second ball of the over was misdirected down the leg-side by Peters and flew away for four wide. Fourth ball Griffith in disdainful fashion hooked over backward square-leg for a massive six. Griffith repeated the dose in the final delivery of the over, when with an exuberant flick of the hip “Brian Lara style” over mid-wicket for another half-a-dozen.
Next over Griffith greeted left-arm spinner Gary Mathurin by blasting him down to the long-off boundary and Chattergoon began the third over by hitting back-to-back boundaries over backward point and over mid-on off left-arm medium pacer Delorn Johnson.
The large contingent of Guyanese supporters in the Greenidge and Haynes stand was cheering vociferously as the openers motored along. However, the Windwards against the run of play struck, when Griffith (17), attempting to clear the mid-wicket boundary for his third six, holed out to Liam Sebastian.
Soon after, the heavens opened up at 8:59 pm, sending the teams off the field with the score on 38/1 after 2.5 overs, with Chattergoon on 14 and Chanderpaul yet to come off the mark.
Play resumed at 9:40pm and the duo took Guyana past the 50-mark in the sixth over via two cheeky sweep shots to fine leg boundary by Chanderpaul off Mathurin.
But Windwards came back into the contest, clinching two wickets in the space of three deliveries. Firstly in attempting his on the last ball of that over, he found Keddy Lesporis at short fine leg. Then a brilliant piece of fielding by Mathurin at backward square-leg ran out Narsingh Deonarine for a duck without facing a ball, leaving Guyana at 58/3 in the seventh over.
Two overs later Chattergoon 27 (22 balls, 4×4, 1×6) who was looking in superb touch, in somewhat controversial fashion was given out by television umpire Peter Nero, after Devon Smith had suggested he was unsure whether he had taken the catch.
Leon Johnson and skipper Barnwell in the face of some tight Windwards bowling took Guyana past the hundred mark in the 15th over.
Sammy then broke the back of Guyana’s inning claiming the wickets of Johnson, Crandon and Johnson (the latter two for second and third ball ducks in the 16th over, reducing the team to 100/7 in over number 16.
Barnwell who was dropped twice in his innings, became Johnson’s victim bowled off-stump for a fighting captain’s innings, then a late flourish from Veerasammy Permaul of 15 (10 balls, 1×6) which included a massive six over mid-wicket in the final over aided Guyana to post the aforementioned competitive target.
Needing 119 in 16 overs under the D/L method to win the outright – but most importantly just 94 runs to advance to the semi-finals – the Windwards’ reply was built on the back of a belligerent knock of 65 by Johnson Charles and despite a heroic bowling effort from Guyana, which was exemplified by Davendra Bishoo’s tight final over, the Windwards held their nerve to send the Guyanese home in the preliminary round stage for the second consecutive year.
