COUVA, Trinidad – A half-century from opener Shania Abdool propelled Trinidad & Tobago to an eight-wicket victory over Windward Islands to lift the Cricket West Indies-sanctioned Regional Under-19 Girls’ Invitational Twenty20 Tournament title on Sunday.
Abdool struck half-dozen boundaries in an unbeaten 57 from 54 balls to earn the Player-of-the-Match award and lead T&T successfully past a victory target of 93 with 34 balls remaining in the Grand Final at the National Cricket Centre.
She dominated a first wicket stand of 54 before fellow opener Djenaba Joseph and Alysha Gomez fell cheaply, and remained to carry the hosts the rest of the way to their target, allowing them to repeat as title-holders.
Earlier, Windwards, sent in to bat, were restricted to 92 for nine from their allocation of 20 overs with no batsman reaching 20.
Leandra Ramdeen was the most successful T&T bowler with 3-11 from her allotted four overs.
At the nearby Gilbert Park, Guyana followed up steady batting – led by Shakiba Gajnabi and Casey Charles – to post a 55-run victory over Barbados in the Consolation Final to finish in third place.
Gajnabi hit six fours in a run-a-ball top score of 48 and Charles collected five fours in 31 from 33 balls to lead the Guyanese to 130 for six from their 20 overs, after they chose to bat.
The pair shared 68 for the fourth wicket, but no other player reached double figures.
Though they kept wickets in hand, the Barbadians never seriously challenged the asking rate and never came close to overhauling their target, as no batsman reached 20.
-CWI Media