By Morris Seecharan
The first time these two teams met was in the 30 over quarter final, and Phantom was no match for the Sunrise club. In this Twenty/20 game Phantom showed up with resilient to challenge as they were sent into bat after Sunrise won the toss. Ryan Ramjas was joined by Terry Sital as they partner to get the batting offensive for Phantom. Ryan looked solid hitting the ball with command but Sital was in trouble as Khemraj Somaru had him off balance fishing on the offside and baited him for the caught behind with the score at 14. Sase Narine, Phantom captain joined Ryan as they batted cautiously against penetrating bowling from Ricky Deenu and Somaru. Together Ryan and Sase moving the ball around and hitting timely boundary effectively placed Phantom at 10 over, 65 for 1 and in position to build a big score.
Roopnarine Dayal of Sunrise during his knock of 57.
As Sase and Ryan continued to bat Deryck Basdeo, Sunrise captain cleaned bowled Sase with the score at 78 for 2 in the 12 overs. Sase made an solid 34 runs knock and an important 64 runs partnership. Ryan continued his batting stance scoring freely with his teammate batting around him. Sunrise bowler stayed focus bowled with sense taking flurries of wickets as Phantom batmen tried to increase their run rate. With wicket falling freely Harold Deokinanan bowled Ryan in the 17 over with the score 111 for 5. Ryan lead his team batting with a knock of 42 runs as Phantom batted their full 20 over made 135 for 8. It was an improved batting performance from Phantom, and they felt confidence to defend this score.
Bowling for Sunrise Ricky Deenu was stingy as his spell reads 4-1-9-0; Harold Deokinanan bowled for 4-0-24-4, Deryck Basdeo 4-0-29-2, Khemraj Somaru 4-0-31-2.
Roopnarine Dayal joined by Seeram Persaud looked to set the pace to reach Sunrise target. Dayal Sunrise leading batsmen took the lead as he gets off the mark hitting a four. Seeram was not fortunate as he edge to the keeper off the bowling of Javed Salim with the score at 6 in the 2nd over. Selwyn Cheong joined Dayal as he was bowled by D. Singh with score at 9 in the 3rd overs. Deryck Basdeo joined Dayal and he looked good moving the ball around picked up two quick doubles but he found his misfortune edging a full toss to the keeper for an easy catch. With the score 15 for 3 in the 4th over Phantom bowler looked hungry and poised to wrap up the Sunrise side. However Mohamed Hussein joined with Dayal and they articulated a batting spell staging off Phantom bowler taking the score to 54 for 3 in 10 overs.
Phantom look to take control of this game as Sunrise was faced with task of making 82 runs in 10 overs to win. Hussein was run out in the 11th overs made a vital 20 runs and an important 51 runs partnership with Dayal with the score at 66 for 4. With Dayal at the crease Sunrise member had all confidence that they have a chance to win. Dayal joined by Harold was in command of the required run rate as he put away bad balls and kept up with the running game. They contributed a timely 43 runs partnership as Harold was caught off the bowling of Salim with the score at 109 for 5 in the 16th overs. Khemraj Somaru joined Dayal who continue his effort to win this game but was ran out to start the 19th over with the score at 124 for 6.
Dayal batting again propelled his team as he led the batting offensive made a powerful 57. Somaru took control as the closer of the game as he hit a momentum four in the 19 over off Dave Singh tagging him for 12 runs. Needed 2 runs to win in the last over Ryan made it somewhat difficult as Somaru scored the winning runs with 1 ball to spare. Sunrise score read 136 for 7 as they deprived Phantom who showed resilience to the end. It was a thrilling win for the Sunrise club, and another stalwart batting performance from Dayal.
Javid Salim lead the Phantom bowling with 4-0-20-3 as Ryan Ramjas bowled for 4-0-19-1 and Dave Singh 4-0-27-1.
Unity Wins Comfortably Against T Bros Superstar
In the second round of the NYSCL 20 overs competition played at Marine Park. Unity defeated T Bros Superstar. Sent in to bat first by Unity, T Bros were bundled out for 61 runs with Palan 14 and Suraj 13 being their main scorers. V. McLennon with 4 wickets for 15 runs and V. Persaud 3 for 9 created havoc for all of T Bros batsmen.
Taking their turn at the crease, Unity despite a few early hiccups, were eventually able to easily secure the win with S. Singh top scoring with an invaluable innings of 31 not out.