The most viewed and well-attended match is usually the final game of any competition. This is the game where teams are awarded their winnings, man of the match, MVP and so on. You would want to expect a good contest by what should be the best two teams in the competition, right? Well, in sports that is not always the case especially when one team is by far a better team in all aspects of the game. But you still would expect some fight especially if you paid for your ticket and had to endure the dodgy weather.
Liberta Black Hawks batted first in the final encounter of the Cool & Smooth T20 Explosion against the Bethesda Golden Eagles. They lost a wicket in the first over at a score of six runs but they steadily build partnerships as the innings progressed. Their leading run-scorer Kofi James struggled to get the ball away but USA’s Karima Gore seemed to find the middle of his bat with most of his scoring shots. He scored a very brisk 46 before he was bowled by Modani in his solitary over.
Captain Cornwall came to the middle at the halfway point of the game and knew that as long as he stayed to the end, his team could post a commanding total. He got some support from Terrance Warde (14) and Hayden Walsh (22) as he brought up his second half-century of the competition helping the team reach 165 for 5. USA’s Kenjige and Barbados Royals Young had the exact figures with 1 for 20 from their allotment.
No Show
“Well at least they showed up”, laughed a supporter of the Black Hawks after the conundrum witnessed in the very first over of the Bethesda Golden Eagles innings. Many could not understand what they were witnessing seeing the score 0 for 2 wickets with arguably the two best batsmen of the team. Captain Thomas went the first ball of the innings and so did his vice-captain Deran Benta two balls after. To add more confusion to the mix, Sushant Modani was run out with the score still on zero. If you were a betting person you would never expect such situations in the finals.
Young joined Fernandez and the two finally got off the march to which the crowd applauded. However, Young was in a ‘beat ball’ mood after smashing a high full toss from fast bowler Chammiqueko Landefort and decided to take on a pitched up delivery and was caught by K. James with the score at 9 for 4. Fernandez then got a few boundaries and put on the biggest partnership of the innings with Kenjige of 31 before he departed with the score at 40.
The next four wickets fell for 16 runs and the showers ended the game prematurely with Bethesda on 61 for 9. The DL system adjudicated that Bethesda would only be able to score 76 runs in the 20 overs provided that they batted. Liberta won by 89 runs and 22,000 XCD. There were 5 ducks in the innings of Bethesda with Karima Gore being the pick of the bowlers with some 3 wickets for 9 runs in 4 overs.