By Joe Mahabir
Better Hope (New York) defeated Floodlights A from Guyana by an exciting three-wicket margin in the 2010 Florida Cup Masters 20-over softball tournament on Sunday at the Fort Lauderdale Cricket Stadium, Florida. Notably, this championship encounter was considered the match of the tournament and it was played at the only cricket stadium in the USA.
Better Hope (NYC) with their trophies.
Floodlights A won the toss and decided to take first knock. They reached a challenging 108 all out off 19.3 overs. Opener Ishwar Persaud of Floodlight A, top-scored for the visitors with 41 which included six fours as Roy Britania grabbed three wickets for 19 runs off 3.3 overs and Jagdesh Arjune supported nicely with two wickets for 10 runs off his allotted four overs.
Batting second, the Better Hope team lost early wickets, but the middle and tail end fought hard and won a thriller with just two balls to spare for the loss of 7 wickets. For Better Hope (New York), man-of-the-match J. Arjune led the way with 34, while R. Britania chipped in with 30. For the Guyana team, Doodnauth Sookram snatched two wickets for 15 runs off four overs.
Better Hope (New York) received the Championship trophy plus US$1 000, while each player was awarded with a trophy. Floodlights A also collected the runner-up trophy and the team was recognized by the Central Broward Regional Park with medals for their participation in this year’s tournament.
Guyana Floodlights Softball Association fielded two teams in this year’s competition. The B team suffered four consecutive defeats.
The victorious Better Hope New York Team consisted of the following players: Ronald Evelyn (Balam) captain, Jagdesh Arjune, Kampta Sanichar (Sweetboy), Danny Dass, Peter Ramroop, Joseph Aproo, Mike Khan, Roy Britania, Gussie Gordon, Kawall Rajpaul, Narine Ramroop, Peter Mangal and Ritchie Bacchus.
The manager was Marlon Roopnarine, ably supported by Nizamudeen Razack. The Better Hope team played unbeaten in the four preliminary games which started on Friday Feb12th and continued on Saturday 13th with the final on Friday 14th . The top run getter for the Better Hope team was Gussie Gordon and he was well supported by Kampta Sanichar, Jagdesh Arjune, Roy Britania, and Joseph Aproo. The bowling honors went to Ronald Evelyn, R. Britania, K. Rajpaul and J. Arjune.
The Captain and Manager stated that all members played exceeding well as a team and deserve to be the new champions. The Better Hope team now looks forward to defend their championship and make it 3-PEAT in the Independence Cup scheduled for the July 4th weekend later this year in New York. Great job guys and good luck in the new season.
