CUL DE SAC—An explosive unbeaten 70 off only 44 balls by Tyanick Honore was not enough to give St. Maarten their first win in the bilateral series against the Northwest Panthers Cricket Club from Texas, USA, at the Caribe Lumber Ballpark, yesterday.
Honore slammed three fours and six sixes in an inning that threatened to single-handedly take the home team over the line.
St. Maarten was tottering at 29 for three when Honore strode to the crease. Known as a flamboyant stroke player, Honore did not take long to entertain the crowd and ignite hope of a win in his teammates. However, despite some stubborn resistance at the other end, none of the resistance was long enough to give the rampant Honore enough time to complete the win. He was left not out with still 22 unused overs for grabs.
Honore had short but important partnerships of 10 off 2 balls with Jethan Edward, five off six balls with Israel Morton, 15 off 19 balls with Kyle Thompson, 11 off 19 balls with Jaeden Bramble, 44 off 36 balls with Roy Singh, 11 off five balls with his brother Tyreek Ettiene and one off four balls with Keadani David.
The most hopeful partnership was between Honore and Roy Singh until the latter played a wild shot and was caught inside the circle. They moved the score from 70 for seven to 114 to excite the home team of a possible victory. But, while Honore played sensibly and was selective in his stroke play, the other batsmen just were not able to concentrate long enough on the task at hand.
Earlier, the visitors chalked up a respectable 194 all out off 50 overs. St. Maarten responded with 125 all out. Adnit Jhamb, who scored a century in the first match, top-scored again with a well-crafted 68 off 96 balls (3x4). He batted at #7 but received staunch support from the lower-order batters, especially Pooja Ganesh (female) with 14 off 20 balls (1x4) and Parth Patel with 20 off 35 balls (1x4). They added 28 and 46 for the ninth and tenth wickets, respectively.
Srihan Challa, with 23 off 38 balls (2x4), and Namish Gurram, with 11 off 51 balls, were the other players in double figures that helped build the winning total.
The wicket takers for St. Maarten were Morton 10-0-28-2, Tyanick Honore 10-0-35-2, Shaiquon Stewart 6-0-35-2, David 4-0-14-1 and Thompson 5-0-20-1.
The home team bowlers gifted 27 extras in wides only.
The bowling figures of the Panthers' wicket-takers were Sainavi Reddy Kambalapalli (female) 4-0-28-3, Shawn Jindal 5-0-17-2, Jhamb 4-0-10-1, Baladitya Kathula 4-0-12-1 and Parth Garg 4-0-13-1. The guests added 21 extras to the total, which were wides only.
With St. Maarten at 0-3, the final match of the series will commence at 9:00am today for a 40-over per side affair.
