The North Zone under 15 team got their first points in the Scotiabank Next Gen Tournament after a hard fought 3 wicket win against North East under 15 at Fatima Grounds. North East, who came into the match very confident after they defeated Tobago in their first match, won the toss and decided to bat first on a hard pitch at Fatima. They however did not get the start they wanted as North’s opening bowlers were disciplined in their opening spells, conceding very little runs to have North East 28/2 after 15 overs. Spinners Darius Popalie (3-15) and Arshad Harrilal (3-15) who both bowled their ten overs on the trot got wickets at regular intervals to further restrict North east to 56/7 at the 2 nd drinks break. Pacer Saleem Ali returned to the attack to wrap up the tail and finish with impressive figures of 3-13 in 8.4 overs to leave North East feeling disappointed with 77 all out in 38.4 overs. North’s only blemish on an impressive bowling performance was the amount of wides bowled, with a whopping 33 extra runsgiven to North East.
In reply North got off to a very shaky start losing 2 wickets in the first two overs with only eight runs onthe board. North East would then take control of the match by picking up four more wickets by the tenth over to leave North struggling at 24/6. Pacer Avidesh Singh did the damage for North East with figures of 5-28. Fortunately for North, middle order batsmen Darion Gooding (26*) and Nabeel Sajabi (13) would put on a match winning 40 run partnership for the 7 th wicket, containing disciplined and positive batting to get North over the line in the 26 th over to give their team a 3 wicket win and 4 much needed points.
East under 15 defeated Tobago to leave the Group A standings after match day two as follows: East 8pts – North 4 pts – North East 4 pts – Tobago 0 pts
North will face Tobago in their next match at Fatima Grounds on 5 th February at 9:30 am.
Summarized Scores: North East won the toss; batted first.
North East 77/10 (38.4) – Avidesh Singh 13(74); Saleem Ali 3/13, Darius Popalie
3/15 vs North 78/7 (25.2) – Darion Gooding 26*(61); Avidesh Singh 5/28
