The pride of Christ Church Dolphins soared to the summit of the 2010 UWI C.O. Williams Inter- Parish Twenty20 Cricket Tournament on a night that turned out to be a case of third time lucky for the team representing the most southerly parish.
The Dolphins, who stumbled at the final hurdle in the last two competitions, outgunned first-time finalists St John Crusaders to win by seven wickets with almost a quarter of their allotment of overs still available in the low-scoring encounter at the 3Ws Oval on Thursday night.
The Crusaders, who were invited to bat first, posted an inadequate 101-5 in their turn at the crease to which the victors responded with 102-3 off 15.1 overs.Player of the Series Martin Nurse (33) and fellow opening bat Matthew King (28) set the tone for the facile chase of the meagre target with a 62-run stand before leaving the inform Kyle Hope to trigger jubilant celebrations among the Dolphins’ players and supporters with the winning stroke, a flick to fine-leg off West Indies ‘A’ T20 specialist, off-spinner Ashley Nurse.Playing before the largest crowd of the entire tournament, St John found run-scoring an uphill battle from the start, ekeing out a mere 23 for the loss of two wickets from the six overs of the Power Play.
They lost experienced left-hander Kirk Gibson to the first delivery of the fifth over, while rookie Jonathan Holder seemed overawed by the occasion, labouring for as many as 20 deliveries over his two runs. Wickets continued to fall at regular intervals until all-rounders Amory Holder (27 not out) and Jade Padmore (12 not out), who though halting the slide were unable to break free of the shackles imposed by the stingy Christ Church bowling.
Neither off-spinner Jamar Phillips nor West Indies player Suleiman Benn took a wicket, but they conceded ten and 17 from four overs respectively as Carlos Brathwaite (1-21), Michael Matthews (2-25) and Nicholai Charles (2-22) shared the wickets.Nurse, who received news of his certification as a Level One West Indies Cricket Board coach earlier in the day, was his ebullient self, while King enjoyed his best knock of the tournament in effectively closing the door on a possible fightback by the team from the east.
They fell within five runs of each other but Hope (29 not out) smashed the Crusaders’ previous match-winning off-spinner Richmael Jordan for three consecutive sixes to hasten the end and capture the $7 000 first prize for the Matthews-led Dolphins. During the presentation ceremony, held immediately after the final, Neil Weekes, representative of sponsors C. O. Williams Construction Company, pledged the company’s continued support for the three-year-old competition which was contested in the month of December for the first time.
Barbados Cricket Association Board Secretary Gregory Nicholls, along with director of sports at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, Roland Butcher, joined Weekes in presenting both individual and team prizes while coordinator Stephen Leslie gave the vote of thanks.
