Defending champions Guyana moved closer to retaining their title after they defeated Jamaica by five wickets while Barbados and the Leeward Islands also recorded wins while Trinidad and Tobago received a bye in the latest round of the Cricket West Indies Regional Under-19 50 overs tournament yesterday at Cumberland Playing Field, St. Vincent.
The reigning champions won the toss and sent Jamaica in to bat.
They were dismissed for 166 in 48.3 overs while Guyana replied strong with 170-5, winning with 14.3 overs to spare.
Skipper Bhaskar Yadram started with the new ball and found success early on, bowling Ricardo McIntosh and then enticed Kirk McKenzie to a shot which resulted in him edging to Joshua Persaud behind the stumps.
Left arm spinner Ashmead Nedd struck swiftly, claiming the wickets of Andre McCarthy for 15 and the Jamaican skipper, Raewin Senior, to leave the Islanders reeling at 42-4 at the end of the 14th over.
Jamaica recovered in the middle period with a 35-run stand between Dominik Samuels and Carlos Brown. While the stand brought Jamaica back into the contest, Samuels’ stay at the stumps was torturous as he faced 46 balls for just nine before Junior Sinclair ended his misery with a brilliant caught and bowl effort.
Brown seemed to be playing on a different surface from his opponents carving four fours and four sixes in his 91-ball innings worth 79 runs. He also shared in a 52-run partnership with Sajay Brown before both were removed by seamer, Joshua Jones while Yadram made light work of the lower order.
Yadram ended with 4-19 from 7.3 overs while Jones claimed 3-38 from his 10 and Nedd, 2-16 from his 10.
In the chase, Persaud once again opened with Sachin Singh and they put on 40 for the first wicket before Persaud departed for a brisk 18.
Singh, playing the anchor role, was joined by Kevlon Anderson but the chase was halted by rain with the score 50-1 after 10 overs.
When the skies cleared, the Guyanese continued their aggressive nature but lost a few wickets as well.
They lost Anderson and Yadram for 25 runs each and Singh for a 66-ball 36 including a quartet of boundaries.
With Guyana already at 121-4, Kevin Sinclair and Javid Karim expressed their talent with Karim stroking 20 while Sinclair sealed the match with his fourth boundary to finish unbeaten on 31.
Jamaica were sloppy with the ball, conceding 19 extras while Roberto Simpson was the pick of the bowlers with 3-42 from 7.3 overs.
At Arnos Vale, Barbados defeated Windward Islands by seven wickets. Winning the toss, Barbados decided to chase with Matthew Forde picking up 5-38 from nine overs and Nyeem Young bagging 3-46 as Windwards folded for 153 all out in 43.4 overs. They were indebted to Lincoln Durand’s 43 from 61 balls consisting of three fours and a pair of sixes and Jeron Noel with 30, the two sharing in a 66-run stand for the eighth wicket.
In reply, Shain Brathwaite notched up his third consecutive half century, a 103-ball 73 which included five sixes and five fours.
Mekhail Marshall and Antonio Morris both stroked 24 as Barbados strolled to 156-3 in 34 overs. Noel returned with the ball to snatch 2-24 from his 10 overs.
At Sion Hill, Leewards trampled Canada by eight wickets. Canada were sent in to bat but were skittled out for 59 in 25.4 overs with only Eshan Sensarma reaching double figures. Jemuel Cabey picked up 3-7 from six overs while Kian Pemberton and Zawandi White claimed two wickets for 18 and one run respectively.
Canada found a little fight with Harkaran Mann removing both openers for seven but Uri Smith and Mikyle Louis unbeaten on 26 and 18 respectively with two boundaries each, saw their team home.
