SPORTS
Jonathan Ramnansingh
TRINIDAD and Tobago Red Force fell to the Guyana Harpy Eagles by three runs in a CG Insurance Super50 Cup nail-biter at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy, Tarouba, on Wednesday night.
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, the visitors posted 269/9 led by Romario Shepherd’s unbeaten 74 in their 50 overs.
In reply, TT made another slow chase and suffered in the end as they were restricted to 266/6 against a consistent Guyana outfit.
Darren Bravo top scored for TT with a torturous knock of 71 runs from 88 balls, while opening batsman Kjorn Ottley top scored with 49.
Middle-order batsman Sunil Narine attempted his heroics in the final over but was unable to take TT over the line despite putting in a brilliant performance with the ball.
Narine closed it on 30, while fellow spinner Yannic Cariah scored the same. Akeal Hosein joined Narine in the middle for the last few balls and finished with two not out.
Ottley and fellow opener Joshua Da Silva started strongly as they put on 79 runs in 15 overs before the former was caught and bowled by Gudakesh Motie. Three balls later, Da Silva was bowled by pacer Romario Shepherd.
Experienced players Jason Mohammed and Darren Bravo breathed new life into the TT innings by putting on a 47-run partnership. However, the pair choked on their chase taking over 12 overs to do so.
Guyanese spinner Veerasammy Permaul broke the batting stance as he forced Mohammed to play into the hands of a diving Shimron Hetmyer. Mohammed scored 24 off 44 balls.
In came captain Nicholas Pooran who also got off to a slow start. After 30 balls, Pooran scored 23 runs, comprising three fours, and was also caught by ‘Hetty’ off a quick delivery from Kevin Sinclair. At this stage, TT were 170/4 after 38 overs.
His partnership with Bravo reached 44 runs from 10 overs.
Needing 100 runs from the remaining 12 overs, Cariah joined Bravo in the middle and the pair helped the hosts to 226/5. Cariah and Bravo traded wickets well and added 56 to their tally before the former ran out.
Narine meant business and bowled the Guyanese bowlers to an unbeaten 30 off 17 balls. Bravo also upped the ante and took TT to 250. However, he put the ball in Sinclair’s hands to give way to Hossein, with two overs to go.
Needing 20 for their second win on the trot, Narine continued to swing but could not generate the runs required as TT were forced to close on 266/6 losing by three runs.
Leading the bowling for Guyana was Shepherd (2/44) while Motie (1/33), Permaul (1/51) and Clinton Prestano (1/53) also contributed.
Guyana’s win is their first in two matches while TT, after defeating Combined Campuses and Colleges on Monday, lost their second match of the tournament.
Earlier, Guyana started on the front foot courtesy of openers Tagenarine Chanderpaul and Anthony Bramble against the TT pace duo of Jayden Seales and Shannon Gabriel.
Chanderpaul looked good and punished Gabriel for three consecutive fours in the fourth over to take them to 30 for no loss.
Spinner Hosein also replaced Gabriel in the sixth over, hit a maiden, was plastered for 18 runs by Bramble off the second over and was then quickly run out of the attack by Pooran.
With Guyana at 63/0 after eight overs, Pooran called a brief team meeting as the Guyanese batsmen took a drinks break.
On the restart, Bramble turned to launch Phillip at mid-wicket for another boundary.
Narine’s introduction in the tenth over broke the partnership as he scattered Chanderpaul’s stumps off his second delivery. However, the Guyanese hit five fours in his knock of 25 off 31 balls.
Hetmyer joined Bramble in the middle, but after scoring 42 off 38 deliveries, the latter continued with his stumbling off a quiet Gabriel delivery to send Guyana to 76/2.
Young batsman and Harpy Eagles captain Leon Johnson did not hold back as Gabriel had him caught by Jason Mohammed at first slip for a golden duck (76/3). Gabriel’s hat-trick was delayed for around 15 minutes as a moderate rain hampered the proceedings.
When the match resumed, he did not score a hat trick, but Narine returned to the attack and was duly rewarded with the header of Hetmyer (11). The Guyanese faced Pooran at first slip.
At 86/4 after 16 overs, Sherfane Rutherford and Tevin Imlach secured the innings by building a partnership of 83 runs.
The pair departed in the overs, and scored slowly, but continued to rotate the batting to ease the pressure on each other.
When Imlach (32) was bowled by Gabriel, Narine had Rutherford caught behind by Joshua Da Silva in the next over, while Hosein followed suit in the next over, dismissing Sinclair, who was bowled after a scramble between him and young batsman Shepherd .
Motie’s five-run contribution took Guyana to 184/8 after 40.3 overs with Shepherd and Pestano at the crease.
Shepherd batted well but soon lost Prestanon, who could muster only eight runs. At 201/9 with six overs to go, Shepherd opened the floodgates and showed no mercy to TT’s death bowlers.
He hit six sixes and three fours in the remaining overs, scoring 64 off 68 runs, to take them to 269/9. Permaul also remained unbeaten in four.
Leading the Red Force bowling was Gabriel with 4/42, while Sunil Narine showed amazing form by grabbing 3/17 from his ten overs. Cariah had 1/31.
Results:
THE HARPY EAGLE 269 for nine off 50 overs (Romario Shepherd 74 not out, Sherfane Rutherford 49, Anthony Bramble 42, Tevin Imlach 32; Shannon Gabriel 4-42, Sunil Narine 3-17)
RED FORCE 266 for nine off 50 overs (Darren Bravo 71, Kjorn Ottley 49, Yannic Cariah 30, Sunil Narine 30 not out; Romario Shepherd 3-44)
