McKenzie and Williams Jr Lift Empire Nation To First Cool & Smooth T20 Title

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By Neto Baptiste

Young spinner Micah McKenzie grabbed four wickets while Tyrone Williams Jr hit a top score of 42 as they led Empire Nation to their first Cool & Smooth T20 Explosion title with a 46 runs triumph over multiple time winners, Liberta Blackhawks, at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium on Saturday.

Sent to bat by Blackhawks who won the toss, Empire posted a modest 145 for eight in their 20 overs with Tyrone Williams Jr hitting a top score of 42 off 41 deliveries. Kenrick Scott chipped in with 35 off 36 balls down the order.

Dexter Sween (2/18) and Hayden Walsh Jr (2/20) were the pick of the bowlers for Blackhawks.

McKenzie, later named Player of the Match, then grabbed four wickets for 16 runs in his four overs to help restrict Blackhawks to just 99 off 16.1 overs. MeKenzie picked up opener Leroy Lugg for 19, bowled Sween for just seven before having Walsh Jr caught for eight and then having Kadeem Phillip stumped on two. The youngster was the top bowler in the tournament with 17 wickets at an average of 11.59.

Damian Lowenfield bagged three for 15 in three overs while Justin Athanaze picked up two for seven in 3.1 overs. Kofi James, who was later named Player of the Tournament, top scored for Blackhawks with 30. James also finished with the most runs in the tournament with 330.

Athanaze said the team stuck to the game plan.

“The plan was to get a wicket and see how much we could peg them back and we got some more wickets and did just that.

“We got Rahkeem Cornwall and when we got about eight wickets because Hayden was still batting and we know he can bat, so as long as we get him we know we could win the game. This means a lot because we didn’t have much supporters; everyone was against us so we knew that as long as we win this we would have more supporters from now on,” he said. 

Coach Ian Tittle however believes his team’s aggression on the field made the difference.

“Honestly, we didn’t get the amount of runs we wanted to get but the runs we did get we were able to defend so that was a god thing for the bowlers and the fielders. This is the best performance we’ve had in the field for the whole competition and what we did right was take our catches because for the whole tournament we’ve been dropping catches so we improved today and this was the best time to do it,” he said.

The winners of the tournament walked away with $23,000.

Meanwhile, Pigotts Crushers grabbed third place honours with a 42 runs victory over Bolans Blasters in Saturday’s opening contest.

Winning the toss and opting to bat, Crushers raised 171 for six in their 20 overs at the North Sound venue.

Player of the match, Jewel Andrew, led the charge with 64 off 52 deliveries while Leniko Boucher chipped in with 42 from 26 balls. There were two wickets each for Taiem Tonge (2/44) and Martin Caesar (2/23).

Bolans were then restricted to 129 for six in their allotment of 20 overs. Gavin Williams hit a top score of 28 from 17.

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