South top South-East in KFC opener

DEFENDING Colonel Saunders South Zone made an impressive start in their defence of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board of Control KFC Under-15 Inter-Zone Limited-Overs competition.

They whipped Snack Pak South-East by nine wickets in their match played at the Penal PowerGen Sports Club ground yesterday. Having won the national junior title for two consecutive years in 2000 and 2001, coach Baldath Bodoe who was instrumental in those successes, was elated and feels confident that his team is capable of registering a unique hat-trick. Allrounder Adesh Deonarine entered his name into the local record books with the first ever under-15 zonal hat-trick with his off-spinners.  Deonarine claimed the wickets of Evin Lewis, Avindra Bridgelal and Shazam Deen and finished with five wickets for three runs from 3.1 overs. With his outstanding bowling performance, South-East were routed for a meagre 89 from 24 overs.

Tabir Mohammed was the main run-getter for South-East with a hard fought 19. Skipper Kareem Jumadeen, son of former West Indies leftarmer Raphick Jumadeem, bowling offspin grabbed three wickets for 17. Jumadeen was undefeated on 13 but it was Akeem Mohammed who piloted Saunders South to the emphatic victory with a stylish unbeaten 50 which included seven fours. Marlon Briceno made 17. In the other match played at the National Cricket Centre ground, Balmain, Couva, Central Crunchers beat Finger Licking North by six wickets. Finger Licking North made 172 off 44 overs, with Kjorn Ottley scoring  62 runs while Adrian Hall got 39. Javed Ramdhanie grabbed two wickets for nine runs. Crunchers replied 173/4 off 38.2 overs with Richard Ramlal hitting a topscore 54, while skipper Adrian Bharath added 27 and Kadir Shah 22 not out.