BAS­SETERRE, St. Kitts – USA-1 and Bar­ba­dos seem des­tined to meet in the fi­nals of the Ris­ing Stars Men’s Un­der-19 50-over Cham­pi­onships, as they both record­ed vic­to­ries on the penul­ti­mate pre­lim­i­nary day of match­es on Fri­day.

Un­beat­en USA de­feat­ed Lee­ward Is­lands by five wick­ets while Bar­ba­dos edged past the Wind­ward Is­lands by 17 runs in low scor­ing af­fairs.

Mean­while, Guyana rat­tled off their sec­ond suc­ces­sive win, while Ja­maica thrashed Trinidad and To­ba­go.

At Cona­ree Sports Club: David De­war and Kev’Aun­dre Vir­go both scored half cen­turies to pro­pel Ja­maica to a com­pre­hen­sive sev­en-wick­et win over Trinidad and To­ba­go.

De­war hit an un­beat­en 55 from 54 balls with five fours and two six­es and open­er Vir­go made a pa­tient 51 from 90 balls be­fore re­tir­ing hurt, as Ja­maica eas­i­ly over­hauled T&T’s to­tal of 159, fin­ish­ing on 162 for three in 35.3 overs.

Vir­go, along with Tyriek Bryan, who made 35, added 80 runs for the open­ing wick­et to put Ja­maica on track for vic­to­ry.

And when Ja­maica lost three wick­ets in quick suc­ces­sion to slip to 87 for three, De­war and Nicoli McKen­zie, who scored an un­beat­en 12, en­sured there would be no fur­ther loss­es.

Ear­li­er, sev­er­al T&T bats­men got starts but failed to car­ry on.

Five bats­men scored more than 20, but none made more than 25, as Ja­maica struck at cru­cial times to halt their mo­men­tum.

Left-arm pac­er Vi­tel Lawes led the way for Ja­maica with fig­ures of 4-28, Roshawn McKen­zie took 2-10 and Nicoli McKen­zie 2-30.

At St Paul’s Sports Com­plex: Pac­ers Ja­keem Pol­lard and Shaquan Belle took four wick­ets apiece to bowl Bar­ba­dos to vic­to­ry over the Wind­ward Is­lands.

Their bowl­ing hero­ics were nec­es­sary af­ter the de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons were bowled out for 142 in 43.5 overs af­ter elect­ing to bat first.

Belle turned in a fine all-around ef­fort by top scor­ing with 25, while open­er Zachary Carter made 24 in an oth­er­wise dis­ap­point­ing dis­play.

Bar­ba­dos’ last wick­et pair of Pol­lard and R’Jai Git­tens added 28 valu­able runs af­ter they came to­geth­er with the score 114 for nine.

For the Wind­ward Is­lands, Isa­iah Jones took 4-20, Kirsten Mur­ray 3-30 and Kirt Mur­ray 2-22.

Kirsten Mur­ray then re­turned to hit a de­fi­ant 57 from 61 balls bat­ting at num­ber sev­en, but it wasn’t enough as the Wind­ward Is­lands could on­ly muster 125 in 29.2 overs.

Pol­lard and Belle ac­count­ed for the first six wick­ets to fall, to see the Wind­ward Is­lands col­lapse to 30 for six.

Mur­ray and De­vonte Mc­Dowall, who made 23, then tried to re­vive the in­nings in a 56-run part­ner­ship for the sev­enth wick­et, but their ef­forts came up just short.

Pol­lard end­ed with fig­ures of 4-36, while Belle grabbed 4-41, as Bar­ba­dos bounced back from their fifth-round loss to USA-1.

SUM­MARISED SCORES

At Elqueme­do Wil­lett Park: USA-1 de­feat­ed Lee­ward Is­lands by five wick­ets.

LEE­WARD IS­LANDS 102 in 28.5 overs (Matthew Miller 19, Amoree Jones 14 not out, Is­ra-el Mor­ton 12, De-Antre Drew 12; Ansh Rai 4-22, Ad­nit Jhamb 3-14) vs USA-1 103-5 in 23.4 overs (Am­rinder Gill 55, Ni­tish Su­di­ni 31; Mic­ah McKen­zie 2-24).

At St Paul’s Sports Com­plex: Bar­ba­dos de­feat­ed Wind­ward Is­lands by 17 runs.

BAR­BA­DOS 142 in 43.5 overs (Shaquan Belle 25, Zachary Carter 24, Joshua Dorne 17, Mic­ah Greenidge 17, Ja­keem Pol­lard 16 not out, R’Jai Git­tens 14; Isa­iah Jones 4-20, Kirsten Mur­ray 3-30, Kirt Mur­ray 2-22) vs WIND­WARD IS­LANDS 125 in 29.2 overs (Kirsten Mur­ray 57, De­vonte Mc­Dowall 23, Joel Du­rand 13, Stephan Pas­cal 12; Ja­keem Pol­lard 4-36, Shaquan Belle 4-41).

At Cona­ree Sports Club: Ja­maica de­feat­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go by sev­en wick­ets.

TRINIDAD & TO­BA­GO 159 in 43.5 overs (Ab­dul-Ra­heem Top­pin 25, Chris­tiano Ra­manan 23, Cris­t­ian Ram­per­saud 22, Riyaad Mo­hammed 22, Aa­di­an Racha 21, Bren­dan Boodoo 14; Vi­tel Lawes 4-28, Roshawn McKen­zie 2-10, Nicoli McKen­zie 2-30) vs JA­MAICA 162-3 in 35.3 overs (Kev’Aun­dre Vir­go 51, Tyriek Bryan 35, David De­war 55 not out, Nicoli McKen­zie; Aneal Rooplal 2-23).

At St Mary’s Park: Guyana de­feat­ed USA-2 by nine wick­ets.

USA-2 180 in 45 overs (Rahul Ba­su 45 not out, Ansh Bho­je 32, Amogh Arepal­ly 27, Shawn Jin­dal 25, Dhar­shan Harib­abu 14, Je­re­my Samuel 10; Riyad Lat­iff 6-23, Nityanand Mathu­ra 4-44) vs GUYANA 181-1 in 32.4 overs (Romeo De­onar­ine 102 not out, Ram­per­saud Ram­nauth 38, Shamar Ap­ple 18 not out).

(CMC)