New York Masters defeated Melbourne Masters on Saturday, October 29, by 15 runs in the final of the Digicel/Jamaica National Michael Holding Masters Cricket Competition at Ultimate Cricket Ground in Discovery Bay, St Ann.

Derrick Kallicharran copped the Most Valuable Player in the final. Photo by Shiek Mohamed

Melbourne won the toss and invited New York to bat and they made 189-9 in 35 overs. The run-getters were Errol Chambers with 43, Evol Loten with 37, and Derrick Kallicharan with 33. Donald Breadwood and Courtney Walsh were the pick of the bowlers with 4-43 from seven overs, and 2-27 from seven overs, respectively.

Melbourne had a disastrous start when their ace batsman Delroy Morgan was lbw for just eight runs. Mark English with 37 and Courtney O’Connor with 31 got among the runs, while the wickets went to Derrick Kallicharran with 5-35 off seven overs and Clive Garrison with 2-24 off six overs. Melbourne made 174-9 in 35 overs. Melbourne’s second consecutive appearance in the final ended as it did last year, in defeat.

New York Masters bagged $300,000 for their win, while Melbourne took home $150,000 for the runners-up spot.

The awards ceremony followed immediately afterwards. Six scholarships of $50,000 each were announced to the following Under-13 cricketers — Jevoy Spence and Evon Jones of New Hope Primary out of Westmoreland; Anthony Campbell of Madras Primary in St Ann; Kashane Dale of Woodland Primary in Manchester; Jamarley Linton of Hopewell Primary in St Elizabeth, and Carlon McFarlane from Trelawny. Two additional scholarships were awarded by New York Masters from their winning prize money. The awardees are yet to be selected.

Special awards went to Douglas Parnell of Brooklyn Masters for most wickets. He took 13 wickets. Delroy Morgan of Melbourne (272 runs) copped the award for most runs, including the only century of the competition. He got 123 against Caribbean Masters in the preliminary round. The Most Valuable Player Award went to Derrick Kallicharran of New York Masters.

Digicel made special awards to the winning captain of the competition. That went to Austin Hutchinson. The other award went to the Most Outstanding Young Player who was Jevoy Spence.

The team awards went to Melbourne for the runners-up spot and New York Masters for winning the competition. This is their third lien on the trophy in four years.

Semi-Finals Results
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Melbourne and New York Masters will battle the final of the Digicel/Jamaica National Michael Holding Masters Cricket Competition which is scheduled for today at Ultimate Cricket Ground in Discovery Bay, St Ann beginning at 10:30 am.

On Thursday Melbourne defeated St James by 71 runs at Melbourne Oval in Kingston after losing the toss and being put in to bat by St James. They made 174 all out in 34.2 overs. The competition’s only century maker Delroy Morgan made 58 (4×4 and 1×6), while getting good support from Junior Ricketts 37 (1×4 and 3×6). The wickets were shared by four bowlers, Canute Ferguson 3-20-6.1, Lindley Coach 3-52-7, Chester Sterling 2-19-7 and Roy Williams 2-27-6.

St James in reply started strongly losing their first wicket on 52, but were eventually all out for a paltry 103 in 23.2 overs. The first wicket went by the run out route but the team thought that it was a bad decision. This seemed to affect the rest of the batsmen as wickets fell regularly (52, 59, 62, 62, 66, 66, 60, 101 and 103). The only batsmen who contributed any meaningful runs were the openers Carlton Johnson, 34, and Hezekiah Lawson, 29. Owen Lewin got the third five-wicket haul of the competition with figures of 5-18 in five overs. Donald Breadwood took 2 for 24 in five overs.

Two-time finalist New York Masters defeated Brooklyn Masters by three wickets at Ultimate Oval on Thursday in the second semi-final match.

Brooklyn won the toss and batted making 193-9-35 with Tony Hinds 50 and Courtney Elliott 34 contributing the most runs. New York’s ace bowler and competition organiser Austin Hutchinson bagged 4-45 in six overs, while Derrick Kallicharran took 2 for 29 in seven overs.

New York roared back with 194-7 with 4.3 overs to spare. Errol Chambers 53, Norris Campbell 43 and Derrick Kallicharran got 40. Cliff Roye was the pick of the bowlers getting 6-36 in three overs.

Stories courtesy of Jamaicaobserver.com