By Dean “The Sportsman” Greenaway
Julian Bannet is the only player with two centuries
In what could be a prelude to the BVI Cricket Association Peter Haycraft Ten10 Cup final, unbeatens Royal Knights and the Vikings will head into the final round of competition with respective 3-0 records, after victories over Grenada and Cavaliers on Sunday in Greenland.
Opener Kazim Haywood had 58 not out from 23 balls and third man Ameri Hinds a supporting 45 not out also off 23 balls, helping Royal Knights to 123 for 1, then they restricted Grenada to 107 for 4 for a 16-run victory, after a late start shortened the game from 10 to eight overs.
“It was a well fought victory today. We played well and executed on our bowling as planned,” Royal Knights Captain Julian St. Clair told Island Sun Sports. “We wanted to do better than in the last games we played where we gave away 130+ runs. For this game we were coming to see if we could better that and we did.”
Grenada’s chase took a hit when Derrol Redhead was caught by Reno Mettleholzer off a bobble catch for 27, after a 36-run opening partnership with Captain Andel Walcott. Walcott then had a 39-run partnership with Ragel Noel, before Noel was caught by Mettleholzer for 14. Walcott was later caught for 38. Akim Mousey Hendrickson added 17 not out, but they ran out of overs on 107.
With reduced overs, St. Clair said their plan was to bowl a good line and length so that Grenada’s batsmen won’t have a lot of boundary balls. “I think we did that well,” he said.
After winning the toss, Walcott said that they decided to chase but fell short. “To me, they scored a little bit more runs than I expected,” he said. “Getting that 120 in eight overs was a challenge. They had the best of the game and came out victorious.”
He said that losing the dependable Redhead early was a setback. “Even a couple wickets fell after that, and that set us further back,” he said. Grenada will face defending champions RTW Falcons at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, to decide fourth place and will face the top seeded Vikings and Royal Knights. “I’m hoping that we can come better and get the full 10 overs, see if we can change our plans and win that game,” he said.
In the second game, Julian Bannet blasted 13 sixes and seven fours off 32 balls in 37 minutes for his second century in three games, finishing just three runs off his 118 opening mark before being run out 115, as the Vikings beat Cavaliers by 65 runs. It’s the first time that the Cavaliers has gone 0-4 in any form of BVICA play.
Timothy Sookram was run out for a supporting 21 and Deco Khemraj had 18 not out.
Cavaliers batsmen crumbled under the Vikings bowling attack with four bowlers grabbing two wickets each, as Cavalier got off to a 20 for 4 start. Middle order batsman Jagnarine “Suga” Persaud resisted for 32, during a 27-run partnership with Dhanpaul Chrisnanand and another 24-run partnership with Vishal Bharat, before he was bowled by Kelvin Lewis. Trevis Dookharan struggled for 10 before he was caught by Lewis and the other batsmen combined for a lowly 45 runs and Cavaliers were out for 96 for 9 and lost by 65 runs, chasing the Vikings’ 161 for 3. Lewis bagged 2 for 71; Khemraj, 2 for 14; Jieunick Mingo, 2 for 12 and Collis Fraser, 2 for 29.
Although both teams are in the semifinals, Royal Knights’ St. Clair sees the Vikings—who have a better run rate—as a big test in Sunday’s first game at 12:30 p.m. and said they want to come out and play a good all-round game and put their best foot forward.
“We have to bowl well because they’re a batting powerhouse for a good while now, so we need to bowl in the right areas, and that’s what today’s game was all about trying to restrict Grenada to 100, maybe 90 runs,” he pointed out. “We didn’t reach that target but 107 is still workable.”
