PRACTICE MAKE perfect but the Barbados Twenty20 cricketers are perfecting the wrong way to chase modest targets, a week from the start of the Caribbean Twenty20 in Antigua on Monday.
After bowling and fielding purposely to restrict the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) to a modest 100 for five in their allotted overs, Barbados emulated their opponents’ pathetic batting display in their day-night Twenty20 practice match at the 3Ws Oval, yesterday to lose by five runs.
Barbados’ disappointing reply of 95 for nine in 20 overs, followed an equally poor performance of 100 for nine in the previous match which CCC also won to have bragging rights with two victories in the three warm-up matches.
It is worth noting that Javon Searles hit the only six of the innings in the penultimate over from off-spinner Ryan Austin before being trapped leg before wicket with an unnecessary reverse sweep, while Jonathan Carter was the only batsman in the top seven to manage a four.
The other four in the innings came from topscorer Jason Holder (17) off the first ball of the final over from pacer Gilford Moore when 13 runs were required for victory.
Reserve player Holder straight drove the first ball for four and swung the next to midwicket for two but after he skied a catch, the last wicket pair of Tino Best and Sulieman Benn could only manage a single off the last three balls from Moore, who ended with the fine figures of three for 17.
Earlier, CCC, after a slow start against left-arm spinner Benn and pacer Best, who shared the new ball, reached 54 for two after ten overs when William Perkins was trapped leg before wicket by Jason Holder for two.
Medium-fast six-footer Carlos Brathwaite then struck with his first ball, bowling opener Miles Bascombe for the topscore of 32, which contained three fours and a six off 31 balls.
Brathwaite had earlier caught Romel Currency at long-on for a patient 13 off 25 balls off Carter, trundling some flat off-spin instead of his usual seam bowling.
The scoring had slowed down as only 19 runs came in the next five overs (10-15) as Brathwaite, who again impressed and Searles kept the batsmen in check.
The pressure told as Kyle Hope was run out when non-striker Ryan Wiggins charged down the pitch for a ball which Dwayne Smith made an excellent stop at extra cover. With both batsmen at the same end, Smith threw to wicketkeeper Carlo Morris, who relayed to Searles to effect the run out at the bowler’s end.
Martin Nurse, sent in at No.6, played on to Brathwaite for a “duck”, attempting a pull but Wiggins hit two fours in 26 off 28 balls to inch the final total to the 100-run mark.
Barbados made an atrocious start to their victory bid, slipping to 21 for three at the end of the six power-play overs.
Stand-in captain Smith was bowled for six in the second over, pulling at pacer Gilford Moore, who also dispatched opener Rashidi Boucher for 14 as he skied a catch to short mid-wicket.
Kevin Stoute faced ten balls without scoring before he was also bowled, off the inside edge, cutting at left-arm spinner Kavesh Kantasingh.
Carter followed for 11, bowled by leg-spinner Nkrumah Bonner and Alcindo Holder, who was bowled trying to dispatch a free-hit from Bonner, was trapped leg before wicket by Wiggins.
In the next over, Morris gave Hope a simple catch at long-on, trying to hit Bonner out of the ground and it got even worse when Brathwaite was caught behind off Wiggins for five, leaving Barbados reeling on 63 for seven.
There was a 25-run eighth-wicket stand in 4.2 overs between Jason Holder (17) and Searles (15) but in the end, the requirement of 22 runs in the final two overs, proved too much for a Barbados side without captain Ryan Hinds, Kirk Edwards and Ashley Nurse.
SCOREBOARD:
CCC
*R. Currency c Brathwaite b Carter 13
M. Bascombe b Brathwaite 32
W. Perkins lbw b Holder 2
K. Hope run out 8
R. Wiggins not out 26
M. Nurse b Brathwaite 0
+C. Walton not out 6
Extras (lb5, nb1, w7) 13
TOTAL (5 wkts – 20 overs) 100
Wkts fell at: 1-44 (Currency, 8.2), 2-54 (Perkins, 10), 3-54 (Bascombe, 10.1), 4-74 (Hope, 15.3), 5-77 (Nurse, 16.3).
Did not bat: N. Bonner, R. Austin, G. Moore, K. Kantasingh.
Bowling: Benn 3-0-13-0 (w2), Best 3-0-10-0 (w2), J. Holder 3-0-21-1 (nb1), Carter 2-0-11-1, Brathwaite 4-0-18-2 (w2), Searles 4-0-18-0 (w1), Smith 1-0-4-0.
Barbados
*D. Smith b Moore 6
R. Boucher c Perkins b Moore 14
K. Stoute b Kantasingh 0
J. Carter b Bonner 11
A. Holder lbw b Wiggins 12
+C. Morris c Hope b Bonner 5
C. Brathwaite c wk Walton b Wiggins 5
J. Searles lbw b Austin 15
J. Holder c Nurse b Moore 17
T. Best not out 1
S. Benn not out 0
Extras (lb1, nb1, nb7) 9
TOTAL (9 wkts – 20 overs) 95
Wkts fell at: 1-11 (Smith, 2), 2-20 (Stoute, 4.5 ), 3-20 (Boucher, 5.1), 4-34 (Carter, 7.5), 5-52 (A. Holder, 11), 6-54 (Morris, 11.5),
7-63 (Brathwaite, 14.4), 8-88 (Searles, 19), 9-94 (J. Holder, 19.3).
Bowling: Kantasingh 4-0-15-1, Moore 4-0-17-3, Austin 4-0-21-1 (w4), Bonner 4-0-24-2 (nb1, w2), Wiggins 4-0-17-2 (w1).
Result: CCC won by five runs.
Umpires: Gregory Brathwaite, Leslie Reifer Jnr.
