West Indies NAT Season 51 Twenty-20 Tour Division 3: Summaries
West Indies vs Scotland-
match 6140306- Humid/Dry
Playing Eleven:
Wayne Trim LH
Leon Jumadeen RH (Wicketkeeper)
Leonard Arthur RH
Melford Griffith RH
Cecil Griffith RH
Alp Arslan RH
Charles Cumberbatch rfs/RH
Don Carlo Gambino rws/RH
Gregory Farquharson lf/RH
Colin Oscopy rf/RH (Captain)
Dwayne Maynard lfs/LH
West Indies won the toss and opted to bowl first. Scots started off with a fiery powerplay of 44 runs that consisted 5 boundaries and Kevin Malone looked in solid touch. A fumble in a runout from Leon Jumadeen had begun its haunt and the haunting got further worse. Over number 7 had Don Carlo Gambino bowling and he had Malone in all sorts a trouble with a solid googly. Pitched on off stump, rather short and it spun in toward leg stump, hitting Malone's inside edge, it took a massive deflection off the top of the knee pad of the front foot that was following the bat as it came down and the ball went up. Jumadeen leapt for it from behind the stumps and but all he could manage was to get his fingers on it and unfortunately for him, that was mistake number two against his credit. Dwayne Maynard's next over saw another chance created against Malone as the left-arm finger spinner pitched a wide fuller one, barely inside the wide line, hitting Jumadeen's shin before the tall lad could bring his gloves into position. On the other hand, Malone had stepped out and toward the off side but the wider one just shocked him as his bat failed to make any contact with the flatter quicker ball and he remained stranded on the pitch, only to be saved by Leon Jumadeen's fumble for the third time. That suffices this game really, Leon Jumadeen was the Player of the Match for the opposition as his poor day behind the stumps really handed an opportunity to Malone to sway the game towards the Scots. Everybody has bad days after all, even if some cost West Indies a spot in the World Twenty-20...
Well, we'll move to the innings break, Scots had 144 onboard much helped by Malone's 54 and the lower middle order smacking 39 off the last three overs. The chase began with a wicketless powerplay but quite like the previous game, it was one that made you wonder if 37 was enough off the first six, especially getting just 24 from 4 overs of seam on a dry deck. Leon Jumadeen smacked two fours and two sixes right after the powerplay but both openers were dismissed looking to accelerate and West Indies fell to 61/2 after eight needing 84 from the next twelve. Melford Griffith was the big name dismissal in the third over after the powerplay that had increased the damage inflicted upon Windies. 72/3 after ten, needing 73 more off the next ten, West Indies had a troublesome chase to go forward with. Kirk Kelly got Cecil Griffith out in his next over but Alp Arslan and Leonard Arthur showcased some calm with a bit of a partnership. 104/4 after fourteen overs, West Indies needed 41 from six overs at just below seven an over but Leonard Arthur's dismissal in the following over had a drastic effects. Kirk Kelly came back and plucked two further wickets next over. Rollie Thunder got the remaining three wickets when he came back to finish his four in the 17th and 19th. The Scottish seamers fared much better than their West Indies counterparts as they ended with the figures of 3/45 in their eight put against 4/60 for the West Indian bowlers, off of which Oscopy's two wickets were in the twentieth over. Loss number two meant West Indies were out of the World Twenty-20 qualification race, which did not really end up mattering. The UAE, Canada and Bermuda all did just enough to ensure no Division 3 side had a chance and the three took the remaining spots.
West Indies vs South Africa-
match 6140304- Sunny/Crumbling
Playing Eleven:
Michael Seaforth LH (Wicketkeeper)
Leon Jumadeen RH
Melford Griffith RH
Brenton Stephenson RH
William Linton RH
Cecil Griffith RH
Aaron Munilall rfm/RH
Don Carlo Gambino rws/RH
Archie O'Connor lf/RH (Captain)
Jason Hislop lws/RH
Kieron Mendonca rws/LH
A bit of context of the pre-game situation here. West Indies needed to win big if they were to have any chances of making it into the top two as the net run rate that the Irish and Scots boasted was a fair margin over them. The Irish and Scots were facing each other so one might end up in a tricky net run rate tussle for a promotion spot and West Indies had orders set and plans made up to go aggressive as much as they could. Right from playing three wristies to having Jumadeen go out and try to smack the ball from the get-go. We were ready to win big or lose big, mostly lose big given our luck.
Archie O'Connor picked up a couple wickets in the opening over after Proteas opted to bat first. Aaron Munilall had par day with 4/26 but the two young wristies fared rather impressively with the figures of 2/15 for Mendonca and 1/21 for Gambino to add to 3/14 for O'Connor. Uncharacteristically, Jason Hislop had a rather poor outing. I am worried if he'll be good enough for the T20 tour next season now that we aren't in the World T20 and it would be a rather unfitting end to have the legend have to end with the figures of 0/35 off his four on his last Twenty-20 game.
South Africa had a 111 onboard and West Indies started off with a responsible 32 run powerplay only losing Seaforth in the first six overs. Melford Griffith fell right after the powerplay but Brenton Stephenson played a smart knock in the middle. At the end of the fifteenth over, all five batters but him were out as West Indies were 75/5, needing 37 from the next five overs. We have failed easier chases with more wickets in hand in a much grander fashion on tracks that are better for batting before by the way. Stephenson was at 28 off 31 balls. Six runs came in Ryan Chyer's next over and West Indies needed 31 from four overs. 10 off of wristie de Villiers and a boundary in Chyer's 18th had West Indies needing 14 off 12 balls with finisher and all-rounder Munilall and Brenton Stephenson still there. 7 runs were scored off of Michael van Graan's penultimate over and West Indies needed 7 from six balls against Ryan Chyer.
Ryan Chyer began with a wide yorker against Aaron Munilall that Munilall smacked to the right of point and to the boundary fence. 3 runs were needed for the win and there were five balls to go. Ryan Chyer moved to a classic good length test match delivery next ball and let the crumbling deck's cracked and mashed up state do the trick. And it did its job as the ball seamed onto middle and leg and Chyer had his man. Ball three, Chyer bowls it short and Don Carlo Gambino misses it as it hits him on the helmet. Gambino wanted to run even after his head was struck with a 147kmph bullet in a fashion that you could see those dizzy cartoon circles flying like a halo over his head so he could give strike back to the batter in Stephenson. A dot ball, three needed off three balls. Chyer returned to his good-length ball for the next one and with an aggressive field absolutely covering the off side inside the circle, Gambino had to look for the big loft over the covers. He missed but so did Chyer and so did keeper Triegaardt. Keeper Triegaardt fumbled and Gambino raced out of his crease and reached almost midpitch before realising the ball didn't go far from Triegaardt who picked it up again and ran to stumps to flick the bail off whilst Don Carlo Gambino failed the race to the stump line from the other end. The situation had turned quite grim now, three needed from two balls and a new batter in quick Archie O'Connor held strike. The field was a slip, a point, a cover point, extra cover, cover, mid off, midwicket, square leg, all inside the 30-yard circle and a long on being the only guy outside. The expectation from Chyer was a fuller length ball or a yorker, a wide one at that said commentator and past legend Monte Morris, who was a quality Windies right arm fast in his day. Chyer bowled a slower yorker baffling the commentator's box, as a tailender bat in Archie O'Connor found it easy to play toward long-on and run an easy two. Many opined that Brenton Stephenson should have refused the second and kept the strike to hit the two off the last ball to seal the game instead of giving Archie O'Connor the strike off the last ball. Many also appreciated his awareness to ensure that West Indies couldn't lose the game anymore as that two had tied the scores. One ball to go, one run needed to win. Long-on was brought in to mid-on and midwicket and square leg were sent back to cow's corner and deep midwicket. Chyer could've literally hollered at O'Connor and told him he was bowling a yorker there and it wouldn't have made a difference. And a yorker it was, and by the time the yorker dipped into O'Connor's toes, Brenton Stephenson had crossed half the pitch in the run. O'Connor barely got bat under the yorker, but he did get something on it as the ball went flat, and after one bounce it went into JJ Redick's hands at mid-on, who had just been asked to come into the circle. Redick threw it to the non-striker's end and a direct hit sealed wandering Stephenson's end for a tie in this clash that had no significance by that point with the poor net run rates for both and the fact that Bermuda had taken the 12th World Twenty-20 spot earlier that day.
Now, remember when I said we predicted we were in for a big win or a big loss, hence, I found this tie incredibly hilarious, a funny way to end a rather disappointing tour, eh? So, welp we ended fourth with 2 wins and a tie and have also not qualified for the Twenty-20 World Cup this EOS. A rather poor Twenty-20 season with just 3 wins and a tie in our ten games in this cycle. We really only played on four pitches this cycle too with dry and crumbling being up both times. We lost 3 in 3 on dry, had one win, one tie and two losses on crumbling, a win and a loss on slow, and a win in the sole uneven game. With wristies of the high regard I rate Mendonca, DCG and Hislop, it is rather poor but most countries apparently are fairly there or ahead in the spin department as well. A few tactical gaps for me perhaps, a decent amount of poor luck, some flubs and some quality oppositions mark the end of this Twenty-20 cycle and we'll be starting in Division 3 again next season, wherein not promoting might as well put curtains on Season 54 World Twenty-20. Fingers crossed for that.
This tours top performers now! Hislop picked 7 wickets in the first two games he played, winning Player of the Match awards in both despite one of those games being a loss, ending the highest Windies wicket taker and the only player to win two Player of the Match awards for the tour. Archie O'Connor picked six in three games as well, ending West Indies' top fantasy point winner. Brenton Stephenson ended fifth on the highest run scorers charts with 98 and Alp Arslan and Michael Seaforth followed suit with 80-odd runs, comprising a fine 64 in game one from Seaforth and Arslan's 30-odd against Pakistan that ensure victory in Game two.
Up next would be the Division One One-Day Tour where we barely survived earlier this season and we'll have that tour a week later than usual, in Week 12. It'll also coincide with the Youths One-Day Tour who'll be having their Twenty-20 tour next week. Support the West Indies U20 here:
https://www.fromthepavilion.org/leagueo ... 06547#curr
A final mention that I'll be continuing the cheeky ends-renaming thing I began last season. And as the top-two West Indies side in the Matt Krevs Memorial Cup being Caterham Crusaders and Queens Park Cricket Club, the Mohito's Mohican XI End will be renamed to Queens Park Cricket End whilst the Caterham Crusaders End retains its name for another season in the Queens Park Cricket Arena, the home ground for the Senior International West Indian Side.
Thanks for the support and allowing me to borrow your lads always. Apologies its been a rather poor T20 cycle this time around.
