Fifth place playoff of CG Insurance Super50 Cup
Venue: Sir Vivian Richards Stadium
Toss: Barbados Pride won the toss and batted
Result: Leeward Islands Hurricanes beat Barbados Pride by 7 wickets
Scoreboard: http://bit.ly/3ssaslu
ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Devon Thomas was brimming with supreme confidence as he walked onto the outfield at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium – an idyllic venue named in honor of his lifelong hero. A man on a mission, Thomas had one thing on his mind. To get a big score and drive the Leeward Islands Hurricanes to victory over Barbados Pride. He did that and more – registering a superb career-best century to win the CG Insurance Man-of-the-Match award as the home side recorded an emphatic victory in the playoff.
Asked to chase a target of 266, Thomas asked the Leewards hierarchy that he be elevated up to the order to open the batting. He let his bat do the answering and scored a well-polished 117 off 130 balls as Hurricanes raced to their target – making 267-3 to win with nine balls to spare. He hit nine fours and three sixes – the most magnificent of which was a gargantuan straight hit off a flight delivery from Roston Chase which landed in the stand at the Sir Andy Roberts End.
Keacy Carty, who got three figures against Pride in the preliminary round, finished unbeaten on 50 from 72 balls while captain Jahmar Hamilton smashed 37 not out off 25 balls and Nitish Kumar, 29.
Thomas was a pleased man at the end of the day’s play.
“We limited them to score we felt we could manage. It was a very good pitch which got better as the day went on so we always felt we could chase down the score. I took it upon myself to do the scoring in the powerplay. We were 60 after the first 10 overs which is exactly where we wanted to be,” he said.
“After that it was just for me to keep going and build on the very good start. We never eased off and we kept going. I felt I was hitting the ball really well in the earlier matches but I didn’t carry on. Today, things were in my favour and I was happy to make it count.”
Choosing to bat first Pride appeared to have the upper-hand when the Jonathan Carter struck exactly 100 off 121 balls and Shai Hope made 85 off 106 balls. Hope provided the early momentum, putting on a crucial 124 for the third wicket with Carter.
The right-handed Hope, in his third innings of the tournament, hit eight fours and two sixes while left-hander Carter posted an identical boundary count en route to his third List A hundred.
Both fell to fast bowler Quinton Boatswain (3-68) but not before Carter had put on a further 43 for the fourth wicket with all-rounder Roston Chase (21). Fast bowler Alzarri Joseph finished with three for 44 and looked quite impressive with the new ball and in his second spell.
-CWI
