T&T Under-15 cricketers led by a fine allround performance from Andrew Rambaran was back to winning ways yesterday, taking care of the Windward Islands by 47 runs in their fourth round encounter of the West Indies Regional U-15 championships at Chedwin Park in Jamaica.
Rambaran scored an excellent 71 and together with Kyle Kissoondath 56 took T&T to 236 for five off their 50 overs batting first. He then grabbed 2/40 as the Windwards were bowled out for 189 in 47.4 overs.
After compiling 236 and with a strong bowling attack T&T was expected to race to victory. It looked so early in the reply, as they were reduced to 43 for three. Yawani Regis and Divonne Joseph batted well to create panic among the young Red Force, as they added 98 runs for the fourth wicket.
With the score at 141 for three the T&T team looked beaten but never discount that man called Avalon Changoor. The little South off-spinner produced a beauty to send back Regis for 54 and the game changed. Regis struck one four in his 98-ball knock.
Soon after Joseph followed for 55 off 65 balls with two fours and a six. He fell to left arm spinner Nickyle Jalim and the end was near. Wickets continued to tumble and despite a fighting 30 from Sky La Feuille T&T still won.
Earlier, T&T got a setback with both leading fast bowlers Liam Mamchan and Ricardo Chase complaining about back pains. They had to be replaced by Tobago’s Orlando James and Southwest Calvin Loubon who were playing their first match.
However, there pains would have eased when they saw openers Rambaran and Kissoondath taking apart the Windwards opening attack. The left handed Rambaran was the more aggressive of the two and was the first to bring up his half century, his first at this level.
Kissoondath who was promoted to the opening position after a poor series with the bat found his touch and also scored a half century. Assisted by some wayward Windwards bowling that would leak 46 extras for the innings, the openers posted 142 for the first wicket. Rambaran looking set to score a century was dismissed for 71 off 97 balls and struck seven sweetly timed fours. The right handed Kissoondath scored 56 off 102 balls with six fours.
Skipper Ramnath went in at number three and struck an unbeaten 31 as wickets fell around him. The middle order which has struggled this tournament continued in that manner with Khaleem Mohammed (2), Orlando James (1) and Sachin Emrit (6) falling cheaply.
It took an unbroken 44-run partnership between Central players Ramnath and Ronnilstar Perreira to take T&T over the 200-run mark and to their eventual impressive score of 236/6. Ramnath finished unbeaten on 31 and Perreira 23. Windwards slow bowler Amari Venner was the pick of their attack taking 4/26.
With two wins and two losses T&T will play their final game tomorrow against the Leewards at Kensington Park.
