Keacy Carty, in whose honour the Cricket4Life T20 tournament is named after, pulls the ball during his inning against Motorworld in the final at Caribe Lumber Ballpark on Sunday. (Photo by Mark Martelly)
CUL DE SAC--With a domineering performance, the General Auto Repairs Spartans was crown champions of the Keacy Carty Cricket4Life T20 at the Caribe Lumber Ballpark on Sunday.
In front of a massive crowd of cricket lovers, the Spartans restricted Motorworld for just 124 for seven off 20 overs in the final. In response, Spartans overhauled the total with 1.2 overs to spare and five wickets in hand.
Left-arm spinner Daniel Doram was responsible for keeping Motorworld in check with former West Indies test, one-day and T20 player Narsingh Deonarine in their line-up. Doram grabbed three for 10 off three overs in the powerplay.
Deonarine played some cracking shot to get three fours but was spectacularly caught at backward point by an acrobatic Doram for 22 off 20 balls. Doram had to dive forward and did well to hold on to a powerfully hit cut shot.
Motorworld slipped to 44 for four off 9.5 overs until Romain Doodnauth and Jaidel Richardson from Anguilla anchored the inning to help their team reach the final total. Doodnauth hit 40 off 30 balls (1 four and 2 sixes) while Richardson contributed 37 off 40 balls (3 fours, 1 six).
Koffi James of Antigua was the best bowler for Spartans with two for 15 off four overs.
In response, Keacy Carty in whose honour the tournament was held and is the opening batsman for Spartans played freely to top score with 36 off 34 balls (4 fours and 1 six). He and Captain Kenroy David added 42 in the powerplay, but David fell immediately after. He was caught by the wicketkeeper while trying to pull another Richardson’s bouncer. David scored 14 off 17 balls (2 fours). Seven runs later, Cricket4Life centurion Sherwin Peters (2) clipped a ball straight to the mid-wicket fielder and then Carty departed with the score on 58 off 9.3 overs.
Nevertheless, the Spartans were never in a spot of bother because of the wealth of talent on the team. And even though Motorworld sprung a massive surprise to beat Spartans by 22 runs on Saturday to top Group A, the task was too simple on this occasion.
James and Akeem Charles partnered to steady the run chase with a 61-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Charles continued his purple patch for the weekend and was left unbeaten on 36 from 28 balls (3 fours, 1 six). He was at the other end when James departed for 25 off 28 balls (2 fours) and Doram for one.
To reach the final, Motorworld defeated Sun Insurance Jaguars by six wickets and Spartans won Future Champs by 76 runs. In the latter match, Spartans scored 169 for three in the 15 overs per side affair, to which Future Champs replied with 93 for five.
Although they were beaten in the preliminary match by Motorworld, the Spartans were the more balanced team in the tournament and were duly crowned the champs.
At the presentation, which was headed by Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports, Rudolphe Samuel, Chairman of Cricket St. Maarten, Imran Mc Sood Amjad, President of Cricket St. Maarten, Dwayne Elgin and President of Cricket4Life, Curtlyn Warner many individual monetary prizes were handed out. Each man-of-the-match for the right matches was given US$100.00, and Sherwin Peters, who voted the MVP, was awarded US$500.00. The Sub Champions received US$1000.00 and a trophy, while the champions walked away with a hefty US$5000.00.
