TAROUBA, Trinidad, CMC – Opener Justin Greaves narrowly missed out on his second hundred of the Super50 Cup but he carefully guided Leeward Islands Hurricanes to a four-wicket win over Barbados Pride here Thursday, to all but assure his side of a semi-final spot.
Chasing a revised target of 192 under lights at the Brian Lara Stadium after Pride had been earlier dismissed for a disappointing 196 in the 42nd over, Hurricanes reached their target with 11 balls to spare, to take the points under Duckworth-Lewis-Stern.
The right-handed Greaves was the architect of the chase, top-scoring with a Man-of-the-Match unbeaten 95 from 120 deliveries to become the first player to pass 300 runs for the tournament.
He now has 328 runs.
Crucially, he put on 59 for the second wicket with Keacy Carty (18) after Kieran Powell fell cheaply for four, posted 65 for the fourth wicket with Terrance Warde (22) before watching Hayden Walsh lash a nine-ball unbeaten 21 to dominate a 28-run, unbroken seventh wicket partnership.
It was Walsh who provided the much needed impetus towards the end. With Pride keeping the game close, the left-hander belted two fours and a six to take Hurricanes over the line.
“In the meeting last night, coach [Stuart Williams] told us to let someone in the top four bat right through to the end, whether we were batting first or chasing,” said Greaves, who struck 121 on Tuesday against Windward Islands Volcanoes.
“Kieran [Powell] going early in the first over and then Keacy Carty struggled a bit but my aim was always to bat until the end of the innings.”
Asked to bat, Pride found themselves stalled by a lengthy rain break at 48 for three after ten overs. With the contest reduced to 42 overs per side following the resumption, captain Shai Hope top-scored with 55 from 76 deliveries while Roston Chase struck 45 from 58 balls.
But despite a breezy 28 off 32 balls from Roshon Primus, Pride struggled to find the necessary momentum and lost their last six wickets for just 58 runs.
Fast bowling captain Alzarri Joseph (3-34) and leg-spinner Walsh (3-43) both picked up three wickets to lead the Hurricanes attack.
“I thought that we batted well in patches but obviously we didn’t have enough runs on the board,” Hope said.
“[We lost] crucial wickets at crucial times there but I still thought we had enough on the board to fight with.
“You can see the fellas fought really hard in the back end there to try and make a game of it so I’m still proud of the guys.”
The victory was the Hurricanes’ third, allowing them to leapfrog unbeaten hosts Trinidad and Tobago Red Force at the top of the table on 42 points.
Red Force lie second on 40 while Pride (37) and West Indies Academy (31) occupy the other semi-final spots, with all eight teams having played six matches.
“We’re still level-headed because we have one more game to go and semi-finals and finals if we make it through but it’s a good thing to be at the top of the table,” Joseph said.
“In the end we won but I think we slowed up quite a bit and kind of put ourselves in a spot to chase it (target) in the end. It should’ve been won a lot earlier.”
Pride’s batting effort was under-pinned by an 85-run stand between Hope and Chase, which pulled the innings around from the discomfort of 19 for three in the fifth over, after Joseph had struck twice.
Hope punched four fours and a six before steering an innocuous delivery from pacer Oshane Thomas to Walsh at gully in the 30th over while Chase perished seven overs earlier, toe-ending a lofted stroke into the deep off left-arm spinner Daniel Doram, whose nine overs cost just 19 runs.
Their dismissals changed the tone of the innings as Pride struggled thereafter, scoring at only five runs per over.
Hurricanes were set back early in their reply when the left-handed Powell fell to the second ball of the innings from pacer Akeem Jordan but Greaves put his head down in a high class innings which produced nine fours and a six.
Chase, who snatched four for 34 with his off-spin, triggered a slide towards the end as Hurricanes lost three wickets for 22 runs off 29 deliveries, to be 164 for six in the 37th over.
But Walsh eased the pressure considerably by taking 13 runs from the 40th over from off-spinner Kemar Smith, clearing the ropes at mid-wicket before drilling a four to the straight boundary.