PORT OF SPAIN – Trinidad and Tobago produced an all-round clinical display to beat Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) by seven wickets and advance to the semi-finals of the NAGICO Super50 Regional cricket tournament at the Queen’s Park Oval Sunday night.
The victory was a dress rehearsal of sorts for the home team which could face either Jamaica or Guyana in the semi-finals beginning tomorrow.
CCC won the toss and decided to bat on a placid Oval pitch. This backfired on captain Steven Jacob as they found it difficult to get runs and lost wickets at quick intervals.
They were rocked by some very good bowling, led by the unexpected hero and Man Of The Match Jason Mohammed, who finished with three for 19. Dwayne Bravo also took three for 19 as Trinidad and Tobago restricted CCC to 98 runs.
Only Raymon Reifer (27), Kyle Mayers (19) and Anthony Alleyne (18) put up any reasonable resistance to the Trinidad and Tobago bowlers.
Trinidad and Tobago, set 99 for victory, cruised to victory, but not before losing two batsmen in succession and then finding a desperate CCC, who turned on the pressure with some tight bowling.
Lendl Simmons and Evin Lewis opened the batting and put on 65 for the first wicket. Lewis was nearing a half century when he skewed a short ball into the hands of Shacaya Thomas at backward point. He scored 44 off 27 balls including seven fours and two sixes.
Darren Bravo then joined Simmons, who took the bowlers to task, adding another 19 runs before he attempted a sweep which bottomed edge unto his stumps for a well played 38.
Adrian Barath faced 11 balls for only one run before he gave a leading edge to a delivery from Jacobs, who took an easy catch.
Trinidad and Tobago were five runs away from victory but CCC were still in a fighting mood until Jason Mohammed hit the winning runs, finding the gap between cover and point for a boundary.
The winner of yesterday’s final preliminary match between Barbados and the Leeward Islands will determine the group winner and the fourth and final semi-finalist.
Jamaica and Guyana have already qualified for the round of four.
