BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Brian Christmas and opener Jeremy Solozano plundered hundreds while captain Vikash Mohan fell just short of three figures, as Trinidad and Tobago produced a fabulous batting effort to gain first innings points over Leeward Islands, in their drawn fifth round match Regional Under-19 three-day Championship.
For the third straight day bowlers laboured with little reward on the docile Kensington Oval pitch that yielded a whopping 866 runs for only 15 wickets as the T&T romped to the lead, replying to the Leewards’ 423 all out with 443 for five.
Christmas gathered 153 and Solozano, 128, while Mohan was disappointed to fall for 96 with his landmark in sight.
Trinidad began yesterday’s final day on 92 for one, still 331 runs behind but pulsating batting, led by in-form Solozano, middle order bat Christmas and Mohan, made the imposing first innings target set by the Leewards look ordinary.
Solozano, 57 not out at the start, maintained the prolific form that had brought him an unbeaten 160 along with three other knocks of over 50, and raced to his second century in 211 minutes, off 185 balls with 12 fours.
He and Christmas, unbeaten on five at the start, ravaged the Leewards’ bowling in a second wicket alliance worth 184 before Solozano gave off-spinner Tristan Hanley the first of two wickets, in the process passing the 500-run mark for the tournament.
Christmas, who returned to the starting 11 after missing the previous match, celebrated his return with an innings that contained 16 fours and a huge six, the latter coming immediately after passing the 100-run mark from 246 balls.
Overall, his innings spanned three hours and 15 minutes and consumed 291 balls.
When he missed a faster delivery from Deno Baker and was bowled, T&T still required 23 runs for the lead but by that time Mohan had already joined the run-spree and had helped the 16-year-old left hander to add another 143 for the third wicket.
Despite ushering his team to the lead, Mohan perished off the first ball of the game’s last over, holding out to the long-on fielder off his opposite number Akeem Saunders after facing 92 balls in 154 minutes and counting 10 fours and a six. T&T finished the tournament third on 37 points with Leewards last on 21.5 points.
