TT whip Windies ‘B’ by seven wkts

Trinidad and Tobago moved into second place in the regional Carib Beer Series regional cricket tournament after their crushing seven-wicket victory over the West Indies “B” at the National Cricket Centre, Couva yesterday. SCORES: West Indies “B” 238 & 256 vs Trinidad and Tobago 359 & 138/3.

Set at 136 runs to win, Trinidad and Tobago raced to victory by virtue of impressive half-centuries from Aneil Kanhai and Tishan Maraj. After bowling out the West Indies “B” for 356 in their second innings, Trinidad and Tobago made a terrible start to their victory bid getting to 22 for two wickets before Maraj and Kanhai came together. The first to go was skipper Imran Jan who was caught low down by Jason Haynes at first slip off Jason Bennett for ten. This let in first innings century maker Dwayne Bravo but he wasn’t able to repeat his heroics. He hooked at a short ball from Dwight Washington and gave wicketkeeper Dinesh Ramdin a running catch. At 22 for two the off-form Kanhai joined Maraj and things looked bleak for their side. With the rain threatening, Kanhai launched into the West Indies “B” attack and played himself back into form.

At the other end Maraj was in an aggressive mood gathering runs all round the wicket and over the infield. Kanhai however beat his teammate to the half century mark which he registered in only 45 balls, after 69 minutes and containing four fours and one six. Maraj followed suit and got to his milestone in 128 minutes off 58 balls with four fours. It was his third half century in four innings in the 2004 Carib Series and his fifth in six innings since the start of the year. The duo added 102 runs for the third wicket when Kanhai fell to Washington but the result was already a forgone conclusion. Maraj was joined by Shazam Babwah and they saw TT to victory with the latter remaining unbeaten on 68. It surpassed his previous highest score of 65 scored against the Leewards in the first round. Dwayne Bravo was voted “Man-of-the-Match” for his 197 runs in Trinidad and Tobago’s first innings.

The win gave Trinidad and Tobago 12 points and they are now 18 points after two rounds, six behind runaway leaders and defending champions Barbados. After the match captain Jan speaking to Newsday said: “It was truly a good team effort that got us this victory and we are looking forward to winning the match against the Kenyans in the next round. “I must single out Bravo and (Amit) Jaggernauth for praise. Bravo’s innings gave us the big lead and Jaggernauth’s nine wickets bowled us to victory. I would like to see the other batsmen at the top of the order get among the runs from now and personally I will be looking for a hundred against Kenya.” Trinidad and Tobago play Kenya in the third round from  Friday at Shaw Park.