At Barataria Recreation Ground:
Barataria Ball Players vs Police
Scores: Police 247 and 88-3; Barataria 130 and 70-7
It is highly unlikely that Police will be caught at the top of the North Zone Senior Division standings. With one match left in the league, Police have a tally of 146 points and boast a twenty-nine point lead over second placed Barataria Ball Players.
The top two teams met in Round 6 of the league last weekend but any chance Barataria had of usurping top spot faded when they lost on first innings and the match ending in a draw. Police won the toss and chose to bat and behind a top score of 74 from opener Brian Christmas, posted 247 All out. Christmas got good support from Brandon Ramdial, Darius Besai, Stephan Wharwood and Mikel Riley who all got starts with Wharwood registering the second highest score of 32. For Barataria, Marlon Phillip, 3-34, and Carl Vialva 3-52 were the main wicket takers, Derron Wilson snatched 2-39 while Joey Samuel and Vaughn Browne had one each.
Barataria, in their reply, were all out for 130 with Marlon Phillip 39 and Kervis John 26 showing the only resistance. Brian Christmas, bowling first change, ripped through the heart of the Barataria line up taking 5-37. Justin Joseph took 3-34 and Dion Wells 1-23.
Police batting a second time, were in search of quick runs and got to 88-3 before the declaration came with Kerron Simmons contributing 48. Needing 206 to win, Barataria were reduced to 61-5 inside 10 overs and looked in trouble of losing outright but time did not allow and got to 70-7 before play was called. Justin Joseph added 4-28 to wickets tally, Wells 2-32 and Christmas had 1-7.
If Barataria are to take any consolation from this encounter, they are the only team in the competition so far who did not suffer an innings defeat at the hands of the lawmen.
SANTA CRUZ STAY THIRD DESPITE FIRST INNINGS LOSS
At Brian Lara Recreation Ground, Santa Cruz:
Savannah Boys vs Santa Cruz
Scores: Savannah Boys 347 and 55-5; Santa Cruz 196 All out
Santa Cruz held on to third spot on the standings despite suffering a first innings defeat to Savannah Boys at the Queen’s Park Savannah in Round 6. Savannah Boys, who occupy fifth spot on the standings, won the toss and chose to bat and that proved to be a good decision as they put up 347 all out. Devon Charles was the best bowler for Santa Cruz with figures of 6-75. Sameer Ali, batting at the top of the order, was the top scorer for the hosts with a well played 82. There were also half centuries for Pradeem Ali and Roshan Sookoo. S. Ali lost his opening partner cheaply for one with the score on 10 but that only made way for P. Ali and together the Ali’s shared in a century stand of 112 before Pradeem was Charles’ first scalp, he fell for 62 with the score on 147. Sameer and R. Sookoo took the score to 172 before Sameer was trapped in front in the 29th over, Charles again the wicket taker. Roshan batted through till the 53rd over and helped take the score to 318 before he was Charles’ fifth wicket caught out for 60. There were starts for several other Savannah Boys’ batsmen but only Ammeer Ali got into the thirties, he made 31.
Santa Cruz did not get off to the best of starts. Wickets fell at one and six then at twenty-five, twenty-nine and thirty-eight. A mini recovery saw the visitors reach 65-6 and 94-7. They lost their eighth wicket at 104 and were it not for a 90 run partnership between Sherwin Raymond 64 and Brent Charles 48, it could have been much worse. They were eventually all out for 196. For Savannah Boys Ameer Ali took 5-42 while Roshan Sookoo, Sunil Boochoon, Aneesh Sookoo, Riaff Ali and Praveen Ali took one wicket apiece.
Savannah Boys, in their second innings, reached 55-5 before play was called. Devon Charles took 4-17 to finish the match with ten wickets.
North Coast Within Striking Distance of Third Spot
At Glenora Ground, QPS:
Glenora vs North Coast United
Scores: North Coast 120 and 154-9; Glenora 99 and 81-2
In a low scoring encounter, North Coast seized first innings points over Glenora at the Glenora Grounds on the weekend. North Coast won the toss and decided to bat but could only muster 120 all out. Kendall Guerra and Kifah Hernandez both scored 24 runs and Terrance James contributed 15, those were the only bright spots for the visiting team. Keon Mason with 4-41and Christopher Tam 2-9 were the main wicket takers.
The hosts would have been chomping at the bit, to overhaul and build on such a small total but they too did not come to terms with the conditions and were dismissed for 99. Darius Gopaul dug in for 45 runs but the next best score was 10 runs, coming off the bat of Rickford Mohammed. Claude De Vignes took 4-34, Terrance James had 3-19 and Darrel Dennison 3-20.
In their second innings, North Coast were slightly better getting to 159-9 declared with Kifah Hernandez and Darrel Dennison scoring 44 and 43 respectively. Rupdeen Sookdeo had figures of 4-30 while Rickford Mohammed and Zakariyya Mohammed picked up two wickets each.
Glenora needing 176 to win with time not on their side got to 81-2 before the close of play.
With the result, North Coast hold on to fourth spot on the standings with 56 points, ten points behind Santa Cruz.
Paragon Register First Win
At Fatima Grounds, Mucurapo Road:
Fatima College vs Paragon Sports Club
Scores: Fatima 116 and 140; Paragon 251-5 declared and 7 without loss
Paragon registered their first outright win of the season, defeating Fatima by 10 wickets last Sunday at Fatima Grounds. Winning the toss and electing to bowl, Paragon took two quick wickets before Maleek Lewis 41 and Dominic Henderson 22 put together a 68 run stand for the third wicket. Fatima lost eight wickets for just 30 runs to be all out for 116. Junior Mearns, playing in his first match for Paragon after acquiring a transfer from Division 1 team Shannon, was the main destroyer with 6-20.
Paragon, with half centuries from Mearns 64 and Nigel Benjamin 54 to go along with 41 from Kerron Lashley were able to declare their innings on 251-5, a lead of 135.
Fatima started off their second innings on a much better note reaching 62 before they lost their first wicket, Tristan Tom Yew lbw to Junior Mearns for 20. Tom Yew’s dismissal signaled another collapse with the next best partnership being 24 runs. Mearns was once again unplayable with figures of 7-45 for thirteen wickets in the match. Brent Lezama got into the act with 3-52. Fatima were all out for 140, leaving Paragon needing just six runs to win, which they knocked off in 1.1 overs.
Paragon and Fatima are fifth and seventh, respectively, in the standings.
North Zone Division 1
At Invincible Ground, QPS:
Invincible vs Pole 9
Invincible won on first innings
Toss: Invincible (Chose to field)
Scores:
Pole 9: First Innings 94 (Riaz Mohammed 33) Miguel Mahabir 4-28; Raphael Ali 2-17; Suresh Dhanraj 2-20; Ramesh Dhanraj 2-12
Invincible: 162 (Raphael Ali 38; Kevin Singh 37; Stephon Marcano 30) Shawn Sakhan 5-53; Riaz Mohammed 2-9)
Pole 9: Second Innings 247-8 (Ramesh Ramdeen 75; Wendell Samuel 51; Vernie Ramkissoon 42) Miguel Mahabir 5-97; Ramesh Dhanraj 3-48
At St Mary’s College Grounds, Serpentine Road:
St. Mary’s vs Bourg Mulatresse CCC
St. Mary’s won on first innings
Toss: St. Mary’s (Chose to bat)
Scores:
St. Mary’s: 378-9 (Taariq Mitchell 143; Rahul Lakhan 82; Mikaeel Ali 52) Keith Kanahi 4-81; Carl Alexis 3-39)
Bourg Mulatresse: 131 (Mark Aparicio 37) Mikaeel Ali 6-44; Rahul Lakhan 3-26