Seven Seas Police’s season in the new Elite Division came to an ignominious end when they suffered a humiliating, seven-wicket defeat in two days at the hands of Guardian General Barbados Youth that condemned them to last place in the standings and demotion to Division 1 next year.
Akeem Jordan took a second five-wicket haul to bowl out the home team for 116 in the second innings after they resumed on ten for two, and then Kemar Brathwaite and Jameel Stuart featured in a decisive second-wicket stand worth 64 that took Barbados Youth to within two runs of their first win.
Brathwaite remained until the end with 31 not out ,while Stuart, who played several adventurous shots to hasten the outcome, perished just before the victory was completed for 46.
The left-handed Stuart, like Brathwaite, returning to the Youth team after competing in the Regional Under-19 championship, stroked six fours and the only six of the innings, while the more sedate Brathwaite counted a single boundary in his 76-ball knock.
Early loss
Police lost the first wicket as early as the second over, when Dwayne Yearwood was caught by Jordan off fellow pacer Jofra Archer with four added to the overweek total.
Skipper Roger Williams joined the other not out overweek batsman Rico Webb, who was to become the first of Jordan’s three wickets yesterday, also caught for 20.
Jordan (5-43) soon dispatched veteran Brian Corbin to a catch at midwicket with the score on 52 and the hosts plummeted into deeper problems at the fall of Larry Babb’s wicket that made it 53 for six, a lead of only 36.
He bowled 11 overs on the trot at the northern end, and removed Dion Broome, leg before wicket, to complete match figures of 10 for 71.
With wickets tumbling around him, Williams remained untroubled on the placid pitch.
Injured wicketkeeper amar Yearwood (24 not out), batting at number nine, offered the skipper support until Williams himself fell victim to a sharp catch by Brathwaite, fielding at short leg, off Kemar Smith (4-25), who bowled unchanged once he replaced Archer at the south.
Pacer Webb gave hope of a revival of the hosts’ fortunes with the wickets of openers Tevin Walcott and Shane Moseley but was forced to hobble off the field with an injury after five promising overs, opening the way for Stuart and Brathwaite to make light of the other bowlers.
