TT take U-19 one-day title

GEORGETOWN: Watched by a small but vocal crowd in overcast conditions, Trinidad and Tobago beat defending champions Windward Islands by five runs, at Bourda yesterday in an exciting final of the TCL regional Under-19 one-day cricket series. It was their first regional U-19 title since Brian Lara led them to championship honors in Jamaica in 1987. Lendl Simmonds produced his best innings in the competition to hit five fours in 49, and along with Tishan Maraj (28) and Petrock Nicholas (24) rallied Trinidad and Tobago to 157-7 when their allotted 30 overs expired. The Trinidadians were asked to bat first in a game reduced to 30 overs, due a 1 pm start caused by morning rain in Georgetown yesterday. Fast bowler Ravi Rampaul then bowled with genuine pace on a flat track, to claim 3-31.

He received good support from left arm spinner Kavesh Kantasingh and off-spinner Kapil Subran, who captured two wickets each to dismiss the Windwards, playing in their third consecutive regional one-day U-19 final, for 152 in the last over to spark off wild celebrations from the lads from Carnival country. With the small crowd urging both teams on in fading light, Eavin Fredricks who made a fighting 22 with three boundaries from 12 balls, missed an almighty swing at Kantasingh off the penultimate ball of the match and was stumped by captain and wicket-keeper Dinesh Ramdin with the Windwards needing six to win from two balls. It was the second time in the competition that Trinidad and Tobago had defeated the Windwards, as they ended the eight-team tournament unbeaten. Earlier Derwin Charles hit three fours from 50 balls in 43 to set up the exciting finish, but got little support as only Fredericks and opener Miles Bascombe of the other Windwards batsmen passed 20.

The pace of Rampaul, who holds the record for dismissing all 10 batsmen in a regional youth game, and the spinners made free scoring difficult for the Windwards, after Bascome had smashed five consecutive boundaries off pacer Vishnu Narine in the second over of the innings. Marvin Matthews again troubled the batsmen with his controlled pace bowling to finish with 3-27 and got support from Jean Paul who took 2-36. But the innings of Simmons and the bowling of Rampaul, the two first class players in the Trinidad team, proved decisive in the end. The game between host Guyana and Barbados at the Uitvlught ground for third and fourth fifth place was washed out without a ball being bowled. The TCL competition resumes tomorrow with four first round games in the three-day competition.