Open­ing bats­man Kjorn Ot­t­ley scored the first cen­tu­ry in the T&T Crick­et Board (TTCB) T20 Fes­ti­val that helped Cen­tral Sports record a 46-run vic­to­ry over Ale­scon Comets at the Na­tion­al Crick­et Cen­tre (NCC) in Bal­main, Cou­va on Mon­day.

Af­ter be­ing asked to bat first by Comets, open­er Ot­t­ley and Daniel Williams put on six runs for the first wick­et which fell with just 13 runs on the score­board. Hav­ing scored just one and naught bat­ting at num­ber three in his pre­vi­ous two match­es, the 32-year-old Ot­t­ley, a left-hand bats­man ap­peared fo­cused as to not let this in­nings be his third strike­out and formed four oth­er part­ner­ships with Im­ran Khan (45) for the sec­ond wick­et, Lendl Sim­mons (68) for the third wick­et and Aaron Al­fred (38) for the fourth-wick­et en route to his cen­tu­ry which pro­pelled Cen­tral to the high­est score to date in the tour­na­ment 205/4 in their al­lot­ted 20 overs.

Ot­t­ley, who has played for both T&T and the Com­bined Cam­pus­es and Col­leges in the West In­dies re­gion­al com­pe­ti­tion, struck six six­es in the 14th over bowled by Saif Mo­hammed, a left-arm slow bowler. Ot­t­ley’s strikes were 6, wide, 6, 6, 6,6, 6 as he moved from 44 to 80 runs in that over to fin­ish with four fours and nine six­es.

Bowl­ing for Comets, Sha­trughan Ram­baran was the most suc­cess­ful bowler with two wick­ets for 37 runs off his four overs, while Justin Man­ick and Kieron John took a wick­et each for 18 and 47 runs, re­spec­tive­ly.

In re­sponse, Comets al­so got off to a tough start los­ing its open­ers Den­zil An­toine (2) and Wen­dell George (1) in the sec­ond over and 11 runs lat­er Ram­baran de­part­ed. There was a fourth-wick­et stand of 62 be­tween San­jay Jawahir (27) and Jabari Mills (34). Jawahir fin­ished 33 off 25 balls with five fours, Mills end­ed as the team’s top-scor­er with 69 off 46 balls with three fours and five six­es and Man­ick was un­beat­en on 32 off 29 balls with two fours as Comets closed 159/6 in their 20 overs.

Mills, who lost his wick­et caught and bowled by left-arm leg spin­ner Ricky Jaipaul, be­came the eighth play­er to score a half-cen­tu­ry be­hind West In­dies top-or­der bats­man Dar­ren Bra­vo (55) off Queen’s Park Crick­et Club (QPCC) against Pow­er­gen, Cen­tral Sports’ Sim­mons (60) vs Pro­fil­bau Vic­to­ria Unit­ed, QPCC I Isa­iah Ra­jah (64) against QPCC II; Clarke Road Unit­ed’s Vikash Mo­han (56) against Ale­scon Comets; Clarke Road Unit­ed Nicholas Sookdeosingh (84) vs Cen­tral Sports; Vic­to­ria’s Mar­celle Jones (58) against Comets on Sat­ur­day and Ewart Nichola­son of Pow­er­gen (51) against QPCC I.

Bowl­ing for Cen­tral, who has qual­i­fied for the semi­fi­nal which starts to­mor­row, Mar­lon Richards, 33, a right-arm medi­um-pac­er took two for 15 from three overs while the rest of the at­tack, which com­prised Shi­va Sankar, Khan, Em­rit and Jaipal, took one wick­et apiece.

Sookdeosingh helps Clarke Road in­to semis

Nicholas Sookdeosingh scored his sec­ond con­sec­u­tive half-cen­tu­ry which helped Clarke Road Unit­ed book a place in the semi­fi­nals along­side Group A win­ners, Cen­tral Sports, af­ter a con­vinc­ing six-wick­et win over Pro­fil­bau Vic­to­ria Unit­ed in the third and fi­nal group match at NCC.

Chas­ing 194 for vic­to­ry at a re­quired run-rate of 9.7 runs per over, the open­er Vikash Mo­han and Sookdeosingh put on 81 for the first wick­et be­fore Mo­han lost his wick­et. De­journ Charles joined Sookdeosingh and he made on­ly two runs. Clarke Road lost two more wick­ets be­fore Joshua James joined a well set Sookdeosingh and the pair put 72 runs in six overs to reach their vic­to­ry tar­get of 195/4 off 19 overs to win by six wick­ets.

Sookdeosingh, who scored 40 in his first match against Ale­scon Comets, then an un­beat­en 84 on Sat­ur­day against Cen­tral Sports and record­ed his sec­ond un­de­feat­ed knock of 87 against Clarke Road off 56 balls with 12 fours and one six.

Joshua James was not out on 38 off 18 balls with two fours and four six­es, while Mo­han al­so added 38 with three fours and two six­es.

Bowl­ing for Vic­to­ria, Vishal Roop­nar­ine took 3-28 off his four overs.

Ear­li­er, Open­er Kyle Roop­nar­ine scored 71 runs off 37 balls with eight fours and five six­es, Damion Jochim scored 38 runs from 21 balls with five fours and two six­es and Mar­celle Jones con­tributed 32 off 28 balls and he struck four fours in their score of 194 all out in 19.5 overs.

Bowl­ing for Clarke Road, Ker­wyn Sir­ju took 4-28 off 3.5 overs and James had 2-38 off his al­lot­ted four overs.

SUM­MARISED SCORES

CEN­TRAL SPORTS 205/4 (20 0vers) (K Ot­t­ley 101 no, Rayad Em­rit 26 no, A Al­fred 23, I Khan 21, D Williams 10; S Ram­baran 2-37) v ALE­SCON COMETS 159/6 (20 overs) (J Mills 69, S Jawahir 33, J Man­ick 32 no). Cen­tral won by 46 runs.

PRO­FIL­BAU VIC­TO­RIA UNIT­ED 194 all out (19.5 overs) (K Roopc­hand 71, D Joachim 38, M Jones 32, A Nanan 12, R Bri­jlal 10; K Sir­ju 4/28, J James 2/38) vs CLARKE ROAD UNIT­ED 195/4 (19 overs) (N Sookdeosingh 87, V Mo­han 38, J James 38, C Kalawan 10; V Roop­nar­ine 3-28). Clarke Road Unit­ed won by 6 wick­ets.