Leeward Islands Under-17 fell to their second straight loss in the Cricket West Indies (CWI) Rising Stars Under15 50 Overs Cup on Monday, going under to Trinidad & Tobago by five wickets at the Inshan Ali Park in Preysal in Trinidad.
Batting first in the match reduced to 38 overs per team due to rain interruptions, Leewards were bowled out for just 110 in 33.4 overs.
Their best effort came from De-Antre Drew who made 22
Pace did the trick for Trinidad and Tobago as they notched their second straight win of the tournament.
Aadian Racha grabbed four wickets for just 11 runs in 6.4 overs while new ball bowler Alexander Chase removed Devanand Singh to a catch by Riyaad Mohammed with the last ball of the first over. Racha later produced a ball of extra bounce to have the other opener, Hosea Pluck, caught in the slips by Mohammed (39-2).
The direct approach continued to work for Racha as he bowled Drew with an off-stump Yorker to leave the Leewards at 52 for three. The pacer next had Zaveek Toppin caught by Aneal Rooplal (64-4) and also hit the stumps of the swinging Ozan Williams to end the innings with two balls remaining in the 34th over and 26 in the innings.
Racha had earned his side what could prove to be valuable fast-bowling points.
The only route to victory from there for the Leewards was to dismiss T&T. But a sound opening stand of 45 in 63 balls between Luke Ali (40, three fours) and left-hander Riyaad Mohammed (14) went a long way to dashing those hopes.
The Leewards bowlers did not help their team’s cause by delivering 16 wides. However, they did pull things back once the spinners got into action, Williams removing Mohammed and No.3 Alvin Sonny both by the lbw route as they tried to swing him away.
T&T also lost Brendan Boodoo for two and Niall Maingot for three in successive overs (89-4). Ali was the next to go, well caught in the deep off Honore to leave T&T in a slump at 90 for five.
But with just 25 to get off 78 balls, there was no scoreboard pressure and skipper Ali (20 not out) and Cristian Rampersad got the job done.
In other matches, Barbados got their second win when they beat the Windward Islands by three wickets at Gilbert Park, while a five-wicket haul by Gulcharran Chulai led Guyana to a 29-run victory over Jamaica.
