Cool & Smooth Explosion Set For Exciting Climax

Caribbean Union Bank (CUB) Bethesda Golden Eagles and Bolans will clash in the finals of the Cool & Smooth T20 Explosion on Saturday night, following shocking victories over favourites Burton’s Laundry All Saints Pythons and PIC Liberta Blackhawks in Friday’s semifinals.
Bolans, needing 72 runs from six overs following a revised Duckworth-Lewis-Stern target of 128, got home with four balls to spare at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground.
They were led in their chase by Gavin Williams who struck a powerful six off Windies fast bowler Alzarri Joseph in the penultimate over to set up the successful chase. Williams finished on 24 not out with two sixes and two fours. Maxwell Georgeson top-scored with 32 runs from 35 balls.
Earlier, All Saints posted a total of 157 for 3 with Gidron Pope top-scoring with 56 and Larry Audain ending on 54 not out from 50 deliveries.
Captain of the Bolans team, Orlando Peters, said it was just a matter of holding their nerves as they hunted what many thought was an unreachable target.
“It was very simple, just to believe because this ground isn’t necessarily big and we knew that the strongpoint for All Saints was more their batting, so we always had a chance. We never really doubted because Tyrone Williams didn’t bat, Earl Waldron didn’t bat so our batting is really long so we were always in it. Also, with a score like that and like you’ve seen in the IPL, all we really needed was one big over and that was always possible with the bowling that All Saints has,” he said. 
Meanwhile in the night’s feature contest, Bethesda Golden Eagles, sent in to bat by Blackhawks, set a seemingly small target of 125 for 9 in their 20 overs. Their best effort came from Akeem Saunders who made 29 from 26 deliveries.
Windies A all-rounder, Rahkeem Cornwall, was the pick of the bowlers for Blackhawks, claiming three wickets for 19 runs from his four overs. Kadeem Phillip chipped in with two wickets for 13 runs from his four overs.
In their chase however, Blackhawks struggled to stay at the crease losing regular wickets, and they  soon found themselves behind on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method. That’s when rain interrupted and eventually ended the match in the 18th over. 
Daron Cruickshank played a mature innings as he top-scored with 43 from 42 deliveries which included four 4s and one 6.
Fast bowlers Sheldon Cottrell and Gavin Tonge both picked up two wickets with Cottrell getting 2 for 15 and Tonge claiming 2 for 20.
Tonge said that the wicket of Cruickshank was the deciding factor in the match.
“I think when Soldier [Sheldon Cottrell] broke that partnership with Cruickshank that it was a big turning point in the match because Cruickshank was playing very smart and he is a very good player who can score to any part of the field so I thought that his wicket was very vital for us,” he said. 
The winning team in Saturday’s final will take home EC$20,000 while EC$10,000 will go to the second place.
Blackhawks and Pythons will meet in the third place game with the winner getting EC$5,000 and EC$2,000 going to the losers.
The third place match will start at 4:30 p.m. while the championship battle starts at 7:30 p.m.