By Dean “The Sportsman” Greenaway
Vikings celebrate the 1st title in 6-years with 6-wicket win over Vikings
Royal Knights whipped the Vikings to claim their first BVI Cricket Association Peter Haycraft Ten10 Cup title on Sunday afternoon in Greenland, for their first title since 2019 in any form of BVICA play, when opener Keon DeJesus batted through the innings, firing them to a convincing six-wicket victory.
“This means a lot. I’m speechless right now,” DeJesus told Island Sun Sports before huddling with his team. “It was an uphill battle to chase down 164, but we wanted this badly. It’s been six years since we’ve won a tournament in 2019, six years and I’m just speechless right now. It hasn’t sunk in as yet. It was an awesome game.”
Julian Banett and Timothy Sookran used a 116-run opening partnership to give the Vikings a solid start, before Banett was caught for 93, after hitting 10 sixes and seven fours.
Vikings batsmen could only add 47 runs after Banett’s departure, to reach 163. Captain Deco Khemraj was run out for 32 after Sookran was also run out for 23.
Royal Knights began their charge with a 37 run opening partnership between Kazim Haywood and DeJesus, before Haywood was caught for 16. DeJesus had a second partnership of 55 runs with Yohann Lazema for the second wicket, before Khemraj knocked out Lazema’s middle stump for nine. Shelan Isidore teamed with DeJesus and got 31 not out, before DeJesus closed play with a boundary and a wild celebration ensued, after they reached 165 for 4, completing play at 7-0 with the Vikings finishing 5-2.
“This means everything. It has been a long six years. In our six years, this is probably our third final and we finally crossed the line today—it means everything to the guys, trust me,”
Wicketkeeper-Captain Richard Francis said. “The key was trying to restrict them to a formidable total but unfortunately, Banett got off. When we played them in the group stage, we had them contained early and we didn’t have such a big total to chase in the preliminary game, but today at one point, we thought we would be facing 200 the way they were going with 70 runs without loss in the first three overs. After Banett was gone, the plan was to minimize the boundaries from Khemraj and (Rahkumar) Seepersaud and try to restrict them to singles. We’ve been playing them for years and we know what they’re capable of.”
Vikings Captain Khemraj said that the game went down to the wire. “The better team won on the day. Congratulations to the Royal Knights. They did amazing and outplayed us,” he said. “Thanks to my team for getting to another final. At all points, we knew that we could have defended 164, but we didn’t hit the areas we wanted to hit. I must say congratulations to DeJesus on a master blaster performance. Everybody knows he’s a class batsman. We tried to set him up, but nothing went our way. He was unstoppable.”
While they didn’t have their full bowling arsenal, Khemraj said that they could have tried to hit better areas in the wicket, try to bowl a bit better by pulling the line back a little and not and trying not to bowl up to certain batsmen. “If we did that, that was the key point to turn the game around,” he noted. “But we didn’t hit the spots.”
In the third placed game, Grenada, 3-4, used Derol Redhead’s 54 not out, then another 32 not out by Ragel Noel and Valiston Guishard’s 3 for 32 haul to flog defending champs RTW Falcons, 2-5 by nine wickets, in a game reduced to eight overs following a late start.
Redhead and Noel guided Grenada to 107 for 1 in 6.3 overs, chasing the RTW Falcons 106 for 4 in 8.0 overs, after sending them to bat. RTW Falcons opener Damron Prince was caught by Noel for 40 off a Guishard delivery, while Imran Smith had 27 not out.
“Today was a good game. From the start, we bowled well and they dropped a couple catches,” Grenada’s Captain Andel Walcott said. “And the bowling was good.”
RTW Falcons Captain Orlando “Facebook” Olliverre, said that his team wasn’t on par. “We made 106 because the game was reduced to eight overs, but to me, the bowlers got carried away because they tried too hard, which I can understand,” he noted. “But Redhead was in good form and he just batted away.
