The North Zone Cricket Council launched its much anticipated T20 tournament on Friday evening at the Diego Martin Sports Complex.
Ten teams in two groups will be vying for the $15,000 first prize. Group A teams are Police, Barataria Ball Players, Glenora, Combine All Stars, and Shannon, while Group B includes Invincible, Pole 9, Savannah Boys, Santa Cruz, and North Coast United.
All matches in the T20 competition are being played at the Diego Martin Sports Complex.
In Friday’s opener, Police defeated Barataria Ball Players by nine wickets.
Batting first after being sent in Barataria were restricted to a run a ball 120 for 9 off their 20 overs. In Response, Police made it look easy getting to the target in 7.5 overs for the loss of just one wicket.
There were half centuries for openers Nicholas Sookdeosingh and Brandon Ramdial, who put the Barataria bowling attack to the sword, scoring 70 runs for the first wicket in five overs. Sookdeosingh scored 51 from 19 balls with 12 boundaries while Ramdial stroked an unbeaten 55 off 22 balls inclusive of eight 4’s and two 6’s. Brian Christmas joined Ramdial at the fall of Sookdeosingh and the pair added the 51 runs needed in 17 balls, such was the dominance of the Police batting. Carl Vialva was the lone wicket taker for Barataria.
Earlier, Justin Joseph with 2-17 and Darius Besai 2-35 were the main wicket takers while Riyad Emrit, who opened the bowling for Police, started the rout with a wicket in the first over of the match. Damien Brown also got into the act with one wicket. Barataria’s running between the wickets was suspect with three of their batsmen dismissed via the runout route.
Teyron Harbin top-scored for Barataria with 31 while Jeremy Araujo made 26.
Barataria’s next match is scheduled for Saturday 20th May against Glenora Sports Club at 6:30pm while Police will take on Shannon on Sunday at 2pm.
Glenora will open its Group A account on Tuesday 16th against Combined All Stars at 6:30pm
Savannah Boys Win Big
On Saturday, action in Group B bowled off between Savannah Boys and Pole 9. Savannah Boys came out on top with a 93-run win.
Savannah Boys won the toss and decided to bat and scored at just under ten runs per over in a total of 199-9. The target of 200 proved too much for Pole 9, as they never got close and were all out for 106 in 18.4 overs.
Leading the way for Savannah Boys was Vishan Jagessar with 54. He faced 26 balls and struck two 4’s and five 6’s. Mario Belcon smashed 30 runs all coming from boundaries with six 4’s and one 6 from 12 balls. There were also useful contributions from Pradeem Ali 23 and Sameer Ali 20.
For Pole 9, Vishal Maharaj took 3-49, Shawn Sakhan had 2-15 and Ganesh Lochan picked up 2-31. Darren Ragbir and Kareem Hamilton Hamilton took one wicket each.
In their turn at bat, Pole 9 started well and scored at ten runs per over for the first two overs but they lost five wickets for four runs to be reduced to 24-5 and never recovered. Pole 9 was eventually bowled out for 106 with Rishi Manna top-scoring with 24.
Chateram Ramlal was Savannah Boys’ best bowler with figures of 4-18. Vishan Jagessar and Pradeem Ali took two wickets each while Ameer Ali took the other wicket to fall.
Group B action will continue on Wednesday 17th with Invincible and North Coast both opening their 2023 T20 accounts.
