Sherwin Ganga stars in TT win

Superb batting and bowling performances by exciting opener Sherwin Ganga and his partner Imran Jan piloted Trinidad and Tobago to a morale-boosting three-wicket victory over Barbados in their opening round match of the West Indies Board Regional Limited-Overs championship at the Enmore Community Centre Ground yesterday. In his debut outing in the region’s premier limited-overs tournament, left-handed Ganga grabbed three wickets for 28 runs and exhibited an array of exciting shots in his match-winning 53 as featured in a 107-run opening partnership with Jan who finished with 49.

Trinidad and Tobago celebrated victory with 9.1 overs to spare as they mustered 210 for seven (off 41.5 overs) in reply to Barbados 209 for eight wickets off their allotted 50. Jan also starred with the ball as he became the 14th Trinidadian to claim four or more wickets in the regional competition. Jan finished with four for 46 from eight overs after Ganga did the early damage by removing the aggressive Martin Nurse who together with the experienced former West Indies Test opener Sherwin Campbell who laboured for 35.2 overs for his 53. Nurse made a quickfire 53 which was studded with two lofty sixes and seven fours off 65 balls after Barbados won the toss and decided to take first batting option on the good batting track.

Ganga forced Nurse to play a slashing square cut which was magnificently taken by  diving Ricardo Powell at the point position. Barbados were 87 for one and lost Test player Ryan Hinds (1) five runs later, caught by Samuel Badree at mid-wicket off Ganga who also accounted the talented Dwayne Smith caught at first by Jan for four. TT’s skipper Daren persisted with his spinners and they rewarded him with all the other wickets which fell during the Barbadian innings which proved inadequate at the end. Off-spinner Rodney Sooklal bowled Floyd Reifer for six while Jan replaced Ganga at the Southern end and prised out the other four batsmen.

Campbell, having laboured during the 35.2 overs sent during his vigil at the crease, was caught by Powell with the score at 130 and ICC Champions Cup hero Ian Bradshaw who once again came to his team’s rescue with an unbeaten 22 off 15 balls. He struck one six and a four but saw three other wickets tumbled as Barbados failed to capitalise on a very good batting strip. Jan and Ganga started confidently but it was debutant Ganga who set the ground alight with magnificent shots to all parts of the ground against the West Indies leading new ball bowlers Ian Bradshaw and Corey Collymore. Ganga forced skipper Courtney Browne to remove Bradshaw and be spared the onslaught. And on his return he was treated with disdain as the opening pair posted TT’s fifth regional limited overs century opening partnership. They also erased the TT’s opening ground record of 102 set by Suruj Ragoonath and Andre Lawrence in 1998. Ganga smashed seven fours off 60 while Jan stroked eight fours off 56 balls. The partnership was broken when Jan was unfortunately run out when he had changed gears with some powerful shots and one short of the half century mark.

Elder brother Daren Ganga replaced Jan and immediately stamped his class and authority with scintillating shots. But he quickly lost Sherwin who played a sweep shot to offspinner Ryan Hurley and was adjudged LBW by umpire Norman Malcolm. Hurley and Ryan Hinds created a flutter against the nervous Trinidadians middle-order batsmen who gifted their wickets away with injudicious stroke play. Ganga made an enterprising 46 while Gregory Mohair (13), Ricardo Powell (17), Shazam Babwah (0) and Richard Kelly (5) threw their wickets away in their anxiety to trying to finish the match with bold and sometimes cross-batted shots. West Indies youth captain Dinesh Ramdin stroked the winning runs much to the delight of the entire TT’s contingent who would be boosted and energised by this wonderful victory over the Bajans despite not having the services of West Indies stars Brian Lara, Dwayne Bravo, Mervyn Dillon and Ravi Rampaul — all out of the tournament due to injuries and the non-selection of leftarm spinner Dave Mohammed. Hurley picked up four for 40 but all in vain.