T & T RED Force got their CG United Super50 campaign back on track with a 6-wicket win over the Guyana Harpy Eagles yesterday at the Queen’s Park Oval in St. Clair.
Red Force skipper Pooran, who won the toss, invited the Harpy Eagles to bat first and despite openers Kemol Savory (32) and Tevin Imlach (34) getting off to a good start, they were in a tough spot at 77/7 at one point.
A 20-run partnership between Shepherd and Weerasamy Parmaul took Guyana to 97 in the 32nd over, before falling for the eighth wicket. Later, Romario Shepard and Gudakesh Moti came into the middle and helped salvage the innings. Shepard and Mortie put on a 79-run partnership for the 9th wicket.
Romario Shepard scored 56 runs in 51 balls with 03 sixes and 4 fours and Moti scored 39 runs with one six and 3 fours.
Part-time spinner Jide Goolie was caught in the last wicket by Clinton Pestano, and Guyana were all out for 182. Cariah took 3/30 in ten overs, pacer Shannon Gabriel 2/25 in seven overs and Hossain 2/52 in ten overs.
Pooran made a number of bowling changes but it did not bring immediate success to the home side. Praising the efforts of the bowlers, Pooran said,
“That is something we definitely working on, it’s a trend now (for teams to prolong their innings against us)…the last couple wickets keep forging partnerships. We are trying our best, (but) I think in the middle overs the ball gets a bit bigger.”
Kjorn Otley, who played confidently throughout the match, continued to show his attacking prowess in the Red Army’s response as he scored 27 runs. Opener Amir Jangoo was dismissed for 2 runs in his first match of the series.
Otley and Darren Bravo added 28 for the second wicket and Bravo, like Jangoo, presented a gift to the Harpy Eagles as he played a short ball straight to Pestano at cover to give Motie another scalp.
Red Force kept throwing away their wickets as attempting a quick single Jason Mohammed was run out. The match was interrupted by rain with the Red force 127/4 in the 26th over. Play resumed after a 35-minute rain delay.
Pooran took little time to settle down again hitting Motie for six over square leg. The duo of Goolie and Pooran took the game away from Guyana in a partnership that combined aggression and patience.
Goolie scored an unbeaten 58 off 58 balls with 2 fours and 5 sixes while Pooran scored an unbeaten 56 off 47 balls with 1 four and 5 sixes. A single from Gooley ended the match when the Red Army were 183/4 in 34.3 overs.
Pooran, who is happy with the victory of the match,
“Definitely satisfied. We obviously lost a game against Guyana as well and we wanted to win really badly in this game. Obviously, the other night here the two points against CCC (Combined Campuses and Colleges) obviously hurt us. We felt like we should have won that game.”
The Red force are now top of Group A with 14 points from three wins, one loss and no result. They play the Windward Islands Volcanoes on Saturday at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba at 2 pm. A win would secure a quarter-final spot for the Red force.