TT whip UWI in Red Stripe warm-up

TRINIDAD and Tobago warmed-up for the Red Stripe Bowl cricket series with an emphatic 86-run victory over a University of the West Indies XI at the Sir Frank Worrell Cricket ground, St Augustine, yesterday.

Scores: Trinidad and Tobago 200 for eight wickets. UWI 114.
The students who left to get 201 for victory at 4.56 runs per over were in trouble from the start and succumbed after  35.1 overs. CLICO Preysal skipper Shazam Babwah hit a excellent 96 to take  the Trinidad and Tobago team their total off 44 overs. West Indies’ leg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine then grabbed five wickets for 35 runs to bowl out UWI. The young batsmen had difficulty negotiating the spin of the West Indies Players’ Ass-ociation (WIPA) president. After going wicketless in the recent Angostura Classic, Ramnarine found  his touch to spin a web around all the UWI batsmen.
Opening batsman  Imran Jan turned bowler to take two wickets for just two runs.  Leading the UWI batsmen were Sherwin Ganga with 26 and Devindra Krishna 20.

Earlier Trinidad and Tobago skipper Daren Ganga won the toss and elected to take first strike. The Trinidadians raced to their match-winning total behind Babwah’s stroke-filled innings, which was ended four runs short of a century by Barbadian Phillip Brown who took four wickets for 54 runs.  Babwah scored his runs in 132 minutes off 100 balls, and smashed six fours and four sixes. He was ably supported by Imran Jan who scored 29 and all-rounder Dave Mohammed 18. The national team will next take on the West Indies Under-19s at the National Cricket Centre, Couva, tomorrow in the first of a three-match series which continues on Sunday and ends on Republic Day. Team manager Omar Khan was absent yesterday, as he was mourning the death of  his grandmother who died on Wednesday night. Funeral takes place today at Charles Street, Gasparillo.
Summarised scores: Trinidad and Tobago 200/8 (44 overs) — S Babwah 96, Imran Jan 29, D Mohammed 18, P Brown 4/54, Keiron Lynch 2/56 vs UWI 114 (35.1 overs) — S Ganga 26, D Krishna 20, D Ramnarine 5/35, Imran Jan 2/2.