Powergen Penal Cricket Club sped to its second win in as many matches in the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB)/Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) T20 Festival with a 46-run win over Merryboys Sports Club at the Queen’s Park Oval in St Clair, Port-of-Spain on Sunday (March 9).
The Penal giants did not seem to be missing Cephas Cooper and Jason Mohammed, who are both out on Red Force duty in the ongoing Cricket West Indies Championships, as they got to 217 for seven after deciding to take first strike on a hard pitch with some green grass on the surface.
They started with a brisk 46-run first-wicket partnership between Vikash Sookhai and Daniel Williams that lasted only four overs.
Sookhai struck three fours and a solitary six in his 19 before he was the first dismissed, brilliantly caught by Rondell Ramlogan, who completed a running catch with a second attempt after the ball initially bubbled out of his hands.
Williams, who just missed out on Red Force duty to Clarke Road United’s Antonio Gomez when both wicketkeepers captain Joshua Da Silva and Amir Jangoo were in Pakistan with West Indies in January, scored an aggressive 52 from just 24 balls that included nine fours and two sixes in a display of proper cricket shots and still maintained a strike rate of 216.
Williams was out leg-before to Jacen Agard. The former Presentation College San Fernando captain missiled the white sphere in the left-hander’s pads from around the wicket in the seventh over with the score on 79.
Navin Bidaisee, who was on six at the fall of Williams, was joined by skipper Adrian Cooper but the partnership produced just 18 runs and ended with the wicket of Cooper who was caught by Abdul-Raheem Toppin from a Saurav Worrell delivery for seven.
Dejourn Charles then joined Bidaisee and together they went on an 89-run partnership in seven overs and four balls.
Bidaisee and Charles were mixing aggressive power-hitting with classy cricket shots as they pushed Powergen from 97 for three to 186 for four. It ended when Bidaisee edged Justin Manick to wicketkeeper Gerard Chin for 51 from 35 balls with two fours and three sixes. Five balls and two runs later, Manick induced another edge, this time from Nicholas Ali and again Chin made no mistake behind the three sticks for his second catch of the innings.
The last two overs of the innings, allowed Powergen to move from 188 to 216 for seven and also gave Charles time to move from 48 to 62 not out and set Merryboys a challenging target of 217.
Kevin Ramasry and Chin gave the Diego Martin-based team a slow but steady start of 40 in six overs and four balls that ended when Charles had Ramasry caught by wicketkeeper Daniel Williams for 11.
Chin hit experienced fast bowler Uthman Muhammad for four through the covers and the fast bowler responded with some bouncers and short balls. But the 21-year-old did not shy away, but instead upper cut another short ball over slips for four runs to the third-man boundary.
However, Scyon Charles forced Chin to edge Williams for 22, ending an exciting and balanced period between bat and ball that would make the cricket purists and neutrals beam with excitement. Three balls later, Sahash Shwethan was caught by Nicholas Ali to give Charles his second wicket in the over.
Captain Andrew Rambaran hit a beautiful four off the first ball he faced and that sparked hope of a Merryboys comeback. Rambaran was on the back of some strong performances for both school and club this season, as he has not scored lower than 50 for Vishnu Boys Hindu College this year and registered 145 for Merryboys in a League match in February.
When he was out at 56 for four in the tenth over, Merryboys hopes were fading away. Giovanni Letren and Justin Manick sought to get the match as close as possible and their own personal landmarks.
Manick reached his landmark of 50 not out when he got four over mid-wicket to finish unbeaten on 50 with five sixes while Letren was left stranded on 44 not out from 33 balls as Merryboys reached 171 for 5 to lose by 46 runs.
In the earlier match on Sunday, Victoria beat Prisons by 11 runs for their first points of the campaign.
Summarised scores:
VICTORIA 140 /7 (20 overs) (Riyaad Mohammed 33; S Jayasuriya 33; Bryan Boodram 3-18) vs PRISONS 129 /9 (20 overs) (Jerve Cummins 38 not out; Zackurrie Ragoonath 35; Jordan Samkaran 3-27; Duane Charles 3-30). Victoria won by 11 runs.
POWERGEN 217 /5 (Dejourn Charles 62; Daniel Williams 52; Navid Bidaisee 51; Justin Manick 2-33; Jacen Agard 2-38) vs MERRYBOYS 171/5 (Justin Manick 50 not out; Giovanni Letren 44 not out; Scyon Charles 3-36). Powergen won by 46 runs.