Narine, Lewis extend Red Force winning streak

CAVE HILL, Barbados (CMC) – A Sunil Narine hat-trick and a typically exhilarating Evin Lewis hundred were all Trinidad and Tobago Red Force needed to brush aside the luckless Windward Islands Volcanoes by four wickets and post their third straight win of the Regional Super50.
Chasing an unintimidating 223 for victory at 3Ws Oval here Monday, Red Force reached their target in the 40th over, with the opener Lewis stroking exactly 100 and fellow left-hander Amir Jangoo scoring 41.
West Indies one-day vice-captain, Jason Mohammed, saw Red Force over the line with an unbeaten 29, after they lost unnecessary wickets with victory already in sight.
Red Force, who were crushed by title-holders Barbados Pride in their opening match almost a week ago, have now gone unbeaten since that debacle at Kensington Oval.
Sent in, Volcanoes produced their best batting effort of the tournament – 222 all out off 48.3 overs – but it was not enough to prevent them suffering their third defeat in the trot.
Their talisman Devon Smith broke out his rut to top-score with 68 while former Test batsman Kirk Edwards got 32, Andre Fletcher, 31, and opener Johnson Charles, 29.
Once again, it was the exemplary Narine who starred for Red Force, finishing with four for 25 from his 10 overs. With Volcanoes looking for a strong finish, Narine dented their hopes by picking up a hat-trick in the 46th over when he knocked over Kavem Hodge (9), Delorn Johnson (0) and Kesrick Williams (0) in successive deliveries.
Hodge was taken at the wicket by Denesh Ramdin, Johnson was stumped off the next ball while Williams was trapped lbw, to have the dubious honour of being the hat-trick victim.
Smith had earlier anchored three successive half-century stands to put Volcanoes in a strong position at 166 for two in the 37th over.
The left-hander, short of runs in the tournament, faced 113 balls and struck just three fours as he first put on 65 for the first wicket with Charles before adding a further 51 with Fletcher for the second wicket.