Mrs. Bainwatie Gobin, the wife of the late Gilraj ‘Sono” Gobin in which a Memorial cricket tournament was held on Sunday at the Caribe Lumber Ballpark, hands over the championship trophy to Captain of NAGICO United Cricket Club, Colin Hamer.
CUL DE SAC--NAGICO United Cricket Club is a richer club after collecting the championship prize of US $2,500 in the final of the Gilraj "Sono" Gobin five-year Memorial 15-over per side Cricket match at Caribe Lumber Ballpark on Sunday.
Gobin was an avid cricket fan on St. Maarten and his family who came in from United States, St. Kitts, Canada and Guyana honoured him by sponsoring this cricket tournament on the fifth anniversary of his passing.
NAGICO, through its Captain Colin Hamer masterminded a tight run chase against Spartans that should had never been for a few reasons.
Firstly, the Spartans are presently the reigning Cricket4life champion when they won US $8,000 and secondly after restricting the opponent for just 104 in 15 overs on Sunday; those runs seemed gettable off 90 balls but they lost by 21 runs.
Spartans’ response looked well calculated with Captain Kenroy David and Keacy Carty at the crease cruising in the run chase.
They posted 51 off 9.1 overs when David was dismissed for 13 off 23 balls. And then suddenly, the Spartans needed 54 off the last five overs.
The NAGICO bowlers had sneaked in some low scoring overs which jacked-up the run rate to alarming proportion.
Sherwin Peters dominated an 18-run partnership with Carty but was bowled by Hamer for 14 off 12 balls (1x4, 1x6). His dismissal saw further panic as Akeem Charles (2), Daniel Doram (0), Carty (38 off 41 balls) and Kingzel Prince (3) were rattled for nine runs in a procession of shock and awe.
The batsmen looked shell-shocked as the unheralded Stephen Evans with two for 12 in three overs became unplayable and magical suddenly.
He was the best bowler for the insurance company team in a move that made the captain looked like a fortune-teller.
NAGICO, in winning the toss and batting first had their troubles too on a pitch that was dry and tailor-made for slow bowling.
At 61 for seven, it took the aggressive Lenny Boland with two fours and two sixes in 26 off 15 balls to add a kick to the inning. He and Hamer combined for a partnership of 36 for the eighth wicket to save face and then win the match.
At the presentation, which was done by the festive Gobin family, Spartans players walked away with all the individual awards.
The MVP was David with 75 runs and one wicket in the tournament. Charles collected the trophy for the most wickets, David for the most runs, Carty for the most runs in the final and Peters the most wickets in the final. How they ended up on the losing side will be a question many are still asking up to now. They received US$1500.00 as the sub-champions.
