Savannah Boys and Glenora Sports Club sealed the remaining two spots in the North Zone T20 Championships after dominant victories on the last two days of the tournament’s preliminary round.
Savannah Boys routed North Side Future Stars by 82 runs on Tuesday, while Glenora breezed past Combine All Stars by eight wickets on Monday.
Barataria Ball Players will play Santa Cruz in the first semifinal on Thursday at 2 pm, while Savannah Boys will contest the second semifinal against Glenora Sports Club from 6:30 pm.
New champions will be crowned in 2024 as last year’s winners, Police Sports Club, were promoted to Premiership II, the second tier of national club cricket.
Savannah Boys had won their opening three games in the tournament with their opponents, North Side Future Stars, already eliminated.
The favorites quickly stamped their authority on proceedings with a monumental total of 188 for 6 in their 20 overs.
The foundation of the Savannah Boys innings was a second-wicket partnership worth 96 between Navin Bidaisee (73 off 50) and Isaiah Rajah.
Rajah would register another half-century in the tournament, getting to 66 off 40 balls as the Savannah Boys innings was littered with dismissals at the end.
Jairam Wahid claimed 2 for 19 while Akiel Guerra took 2 for 38 for North Side.
However, a victory target of 189 was always difficult for North Side Future Stars, which struggled with the bat throughout the tournament.
Savannah Boys were on song with the ball early with Chetram Ramlal (2/17) and Bidaisee (3/10) reducing the Future Stars to 26 for 5 within the first eight overs.
North Side was never in it despite opener Andre Medina’s 43 off 40 balls.
Wahid contributed 23 off 33 balls, while youthful spinner Ameer Ali bowled well again with 2 for 24.
Savannah Boys claimed their fourth win in a row and inflicted a third defeat in the tournament on North Side Future Stars.
Summarized scores: Savannah Boys 188 for 6 in 20 overs vs. North Side Future Stars 106 in 19.2 overs. Savannah Boys won by 82 runs.
A day earlier, Glenora Sports Club came into their match against Combine All Stars needing a big win against Combine All Stars to overtake Paragon Sports on net run rate.
In a rain-affected match, Glenora made the perfect start limiting Combine All Stars to 103 for 8 in 15 overs.
Kristoff St John (2/22) and Andy Alexander (2/35) were key to this effort, with Mikkel Govia also producing an economical spell of 1 for 17 in three overs.
Earnil Ryan’s defiant and majestic 59 off 26 balls was the only bright spark for Combine All Stars in their time with the bat in hand.
Glenora was also superb with the bat with Leonardo Julien (36 of 29) and Keon Mason (39 off 22) hammering 55 off 33 balls.
Govia then blasted a four and two sixes off the three balls he faced to end the match with 5.1 overs to spare.
Glenora’s net run rate jumped up to 2.124, easily surpassing the 0.741 set by Paragon Sports Club.
The Port-of-Spain club went into the semifinals with two wins and two losses, while Combine All Stars failed to win a game in their T20 campaign.
Summarized scores: Combine All Stars 103 for 8 in 15 overs (vs. Glenora Sports Club 105 for 2 in 9.5 overs. Glenora won by eight wickets
