By Dervon Wallace | Scorecards
Barrington Sylvester “Tippa” Bartley all but assured himself a place on the USA team plane to Bermuda next month with a majestic display of power hitting that his countryman Chris Gayle would be proud of. Bartley took full advantage of a lethargic looking Bermudian bowling attack in scoring a magnificent 111 not out from 65 balls stroking 8 boundaries and 9 towering sixes, one estimated to be between 85 and 90 yards off Jacobi Robinson which had the USA bench shouting “SHOT TIPPA”!!!
The hard hitting Barrington Bartley blast 111 not out when USA took on Bermuda in the final practice game. Photo by Shiek Mohamed
After making five changes to the team from game two with Bartley, Steven Taylor, Timothy Surujbally, Naseer Jamali and Adil Bhatti replacing Neil McGarrell, Sushil Nadkarni, Akeem Dodson, Elmore Hutchinson and Rashard Marshall, standing Captain Taylor won the toss and elected to bat.
Unlike in the previous games where USA openers posted score of over fifty for the first wicket Taylor and his club team mate Surujbally could not continue the trend as the latter played a loose drive to the 5th ball of the 3rd over bowled by Malachi Jones and picked out Hollis at deep point who was one of the two fielders outside the circle to make it 6 for 1. Steve Massiah joined Taylor and the two briefly tried to construct the inning before Taylor presented a simple return catch to Janerio Tucker who accepted gratefully to make it 31 for 2 in 9.3 overs.
Massiah was next to go for 12 (29) trapped LBW to Delray Rawlings for the second time in the series. The new batsman was Josh Dascombe who was making his batting debut for Team USA and looked good in adding fifty with Aditya Thyagarjan who came in at the fall of Taylor’s wicket before been dropped 2 balls earlier missed a flicked and was bowled by J. Robinson for 26 (50 balls 4×1) to make it 95 for 4 in29.5 overs.
In came the man of the hour Bartley and his intent was clear when he got off the mark from his 5th ball faced slamming J. Robinson high over long-on for the first of his biggies. Thyagarajan fell for 47(79 balls 1×4) off the third ball of the second over of the batting power play to make it 133 for 5 from 63.3 overs. By now, Bartley was well set and found a useful partner in Japen Patel and the pair added 95 for the 6th wicket, Bartley in the process bringing up his half-century from 41 balls in fine style flicking Rawlins behind square for 4.
With the score on 228, the partnership ended when Patel after an enterprising knock held out to long-on trying to clear the ropes. He made 40 from a mare 26 balls (2×4 and 3×6). With Bartley on 91 at the end of the penultimate over and in search of his first century in USA colors he had a chat with his partner Adil Bhatti who was to take strike at the start of the last over and the message was clear (get me on strike) and Bhatti obliged by taking a single off the first ball and the next two balls were clattered over long-on for six by Bartley to bring up his century off 62 balls and after driving the penultimate ball to long on for 2 he hammered the last ball over deep mid-wicket for his ninth 6 to walk off to a well deserved standing ovation after a pulsating knock from the 32 year old former Jamaica youth middle order stroke player. Malachi Jones finishes with 2 for 49 from 10 overs and Janerio Tucker 2 for 60 from 10.
Bermuda started their reply with Jason Anderson and Tre Manders. The first wicket came in the 6th over when Anderson 13(19 balls 2×4) tried to steer one to third man but only succeed in producing an edge to Taylor to make it 30 for 1 after 6 overs. In came David Hemp and after getting off the mark with a boundary along with Manders kept the required run rate in tack bringing up the 50 in 9 overs before Manders on 26(50 balls 2×4) slice a drive to Bartley at point who made no mistake, with the score on 89 for 2 from 18 overs Team USA was hoping for a customary Bermuda collapse like they have been having all week after getting impressive starts but Hemp and co had other ideas.
The experience Tucker joined Hemp and they took advantage of some ordinary bowling and feeling sharing in a 3rd wicket stand of 70 before Jamali had Tucker 25(44 balls 1×4) caught by Dascombe moving to his left at mid-on at 159 for 3 in 33.3 overs. Hemp who was now well set brought up his century off 113 balls by driving Shuja sweetly though the covers for 4 but immediately after reaching the landmark he tried to repeat the shot for the third consecutive time but picked out Bhatti who took a low catch .Lionel Cann who came in at number 5 and number 6 man Malachi Jones 29(22 balls 5×4) rode their luck as the former after been put down a couple times went on to make 35(27 balls 1×4 and 2×6) as they shared in a 54 runs 5th wicket partnership from 31 balls before he was caught by Thyagarajan running in some 20 yards from long-on off the bowling of Bhatti to make it interesting at 252 for 5 in 44.1 overs.
Bermuda lower order held their nerves with only 11 needed off the last 2 overs manage to 10 off the 49th over bowled by Dascombe with J. Robinson stroking two 4’s. It was down to Bartley to complete an already good day on a high as he was tossed with the last over with the score level and he manage to keep the game alive when after 3 balls 2 wickets were down and no runs added and the 4th ball was a close shave when an edge from J. Robinson beats Taylor and a run was taken to take Bermuda over the line by 2 wickets and 2 balls to spare and denied USA a clean sweep which would’ve taken them to 11-0.
Bhatti 2 for 17 from 2 overs was the most successful, Jamali 2 for 63 from 10, a wicket apiece for Shuja, Bartley and Rajp were the wicket takers.
Final score in the match USA 284 for 6 from 50 overs and Bermuda 285 for 8 from 49.4 overs.
