BASSETERRE, St Kitts, CMC – Reigning champions CCC Marooners wilted under the weight of Nitish Kumar’s third List A hundred as they slumped to a shock 100-run defeat to minnows Canada in the Super50 Cup here Thursday.
In a one-sided Group A match at Conaree Cricket Centre, Canada posted a challenging 249 with five balls left in the innings after being sent in, with the 25-year-old Kumar carving out a run-a-ball 102.
Shahid Ahmadzai also looked set for his maiden century but fell for 73 while opener Jeet Metha chipped in with 34.
Fast bowler Akeem Jordan carried his wicket-tally for the tournament to 12 after snatching five for 33, his second career five-wicket haul while captain Carlos Brathwaite snared four for 40 with his medium pace, to reach 100 wickets in his List A career.
At 45 for one in the ninth over, the Marooners run chase appeared to be taking a normal course but it took a turn for the worse and collapsed to 149 all out in the 36th over.
Jonathan Drakes top-scored with 40 while Jordan top-scored with an unbeaten 37 at number seven but no frontline batsman displayed the required enterprise to overhaul Canada’s target.
New-ball left-arm seamer Kaleem Sana (3-37) and left-arm spinner Kanwar Mann (3-38) claimed three wickets apiece to derail the innings.
The victory moved Canada off the bottom of the standings with Marooners replacing them, both teams with a single win but with the college unit having played one game more.
Jordan struck early for Marooners when he had Shreyas Movva caught at the wicket for two, edging a forward defensive stroke at four for one in the third over.
Kumar then entered to inspire two productive stands and transform the complexion of Canada’s innings. First, he posted 80 for the second wicket with Metha, whose 64-ball knock contained a pair of fours and a six. Then, Kumar added a further 103 for the third wicket with Ahmadzai who struck five fours and four sixes in an 87-ball knock.
All told, right-hander Kumar counted 14 fours, reaching his fifty off 49 deliveries in the 21st over before raising three figures off 95 balls in the 40th over.
Through his efforts, Canada were well poised 187 for two in the 41st over but once he holed out to deep mid-wicket off Brathwaite, the last eight wickets tumbled for 62 runs.
In reply, Drakes carried the innings with a fluent 53-ball knock which contained six fours, after Romaine Morris fell cheaply for eight in the fourth over.
But the game changed in the ninth over when Paul Palmer was run out for 16 at 45 for two and Sadique Henry was trapped lbw by Mann without scoring, with no runs added.
And when Mann spun one past Brathwaite’s edge to clean bowl him in the 11th over, the dismissal set in train a slide that saw six wickets fall for 40 runs, leaving Marooners stranded on 85 for seven – a position from which they never recovered.
