Combermere Old Scholars are the first team to reach the quarter-finals of the 2014 Christ Church Foundation School Joel Garner Twenty20 tournament.
A combination of fine bowling and brisk batting gave them a five-wicket win with 8.5 overs to spare over Alexandra Old Scholars at Dover on Wednesday night.
Alexandra were badly let down by their batting after winning the toss in the top-of-the-table clash in the Lee Harford Skeete/Lewiston Wellington Zone A game.
Their problems started from the very first ball when Rondelle Yearwood got a thick edge off fast bowler Khalid Springer and was caught by wicketkeeper Chaim Holder to his right.
Though Akeem Nero and Jamal Smith added 20 for the second wicket, the scoring rate was slow throughout and Alexandra limped to 79 all out off 20 overs.
Smith, the Empire captain in major BCA competitions, top-scored with 20 before he was fifth out with the score at 47 in the 14th over.
The only other double-figure contributor was Kirk Brome with 11 at No. 9 before he was run out following a last-wicket stand of 21 – the best of the innings – with Jamar Austin.
Skipper and left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican sustained his excellent form in recent weeks including trial matches for Combined Campuses & Colleges, by grabbing four for six off four overs after coming on as the fifth and final bowler. It earned him his second Baron’s Smokehouse $100 Player-Of-The-Match Award. Springer picked up two for seven.
Combermere Old Scholars were given a brisk start by Shayne Moseley and Kamal Sealy who added 33 in 3.4 overs for the first wicket before Sealy fell for 13.
Left-hander Moseley, with some excellent strokes, then dominated a second-wicket stand of 38 in five overs with Holder, who made only two before falling leg before wicket to medium-pacer Brome.
Moseley was dismissed in the next over for the topscore of 43 off 27 balls including four fours and three sixes before victory was achieved in 11.1 overs. Brome took two for 25 off four overs.
The win lifted Combermere Old Scholars to six points with their last preliminary match against Princess Margaret Old Scholars, who have suffered two defeats, on February 17 at Briar Hall.
Alexandra and Alleyne Alumni, the 2011 and 2013 losing finalists, are both on three points and will battle for the other quarter-final place in the Zone on February 21 at Dover. (PR)
