Junior Sinclair engineers Pitbulls’ two-wicket win over Jaguars to clinch title
Better known for his exploits with the ball, all-rounder Junior Sinclair yesterday turned in a match-winning knock of 36 as an opener to help his side, the Demerara Pitbulls, successfully chase down the Essequibo Jaguars’ total of 96 with two wickets and three balls to spare, to be crowned the champions of the inaugural Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) T10 Blast.
Playing in the final at the Enmore Community Centre Ground, East Coast Demerara, the Pitbulls captain Christopher Barnwell called the toss correctly and sent in his opposite number, Kemol Savory and his side to take first strike.
The Jaguars innings endured a torrid start as they lost four wickets with just 13 runs on the board in 2.4 overs.
National u19 batsman Mavindra Dindiyal (0) had his stumps disturbed off the third ball of the opening over to give Leon Swamy and the Pitbulls the breakthrough with just a run on the board. On the penultimate ball of the second over, Shemroy Barrington’s run-out left the Jaguars limping before Swamy returned in the third over to snap up his second, Jamol la Fleur (5) leg before wicket, to leave the Jaguars on 12/3.
To make matters worse, Savoury was run out by Barnwell in the very next over for just 1, by now the game was beginning to look very one-sided at 13/4 in the fourth over.
However, youngsters Seon Glasgow and Kevon Jawahir had other ideas and dragged their side out of the doldrums with the former smacking a four and two sixes in his 13-ball 21. By the time Glasgow was out caught off the bowling of Keon Sinclair, he had sparked a revival to put the Jaguars at 59/5 in the seventh over. Ashmeade Nedd was next in and departed as quickly as he arrived, out in the same fashion as Glasgow off the same bowler for a golden duck.
Despite the loss of those two quick wickets, the much improved Dwain Dick along with Jawahir went on to plunder 37 off the remaining three overs. They both finished the innings on identical scores of 29 not out from the same amount of deliveries (16). Jawahir spanked a pair of sixes to go with his solitary four as did Dick.
With the firepower in the Pitbulls batting set-up, 96 was always going to be suspect, however, the Jaguars did an impressive job to fight tooth and nail to the end.
Where the Jaguars had a horrible start to their innings, the fearless Junior Sinclair, confident in his new role as opener, smoked a 15-ball 36 to go with Sachin Singh’s 13, as they gave the Pitbulls a solid launch in search of victory. By the time Sinclair fell caught off Niall Smith’s bowling after 3.4 overs, the Pitbulls had raced to 45. This brought the usually belligerent Barnwell to the crease but the Jaguars clawed back as Smith managed to trap the Pitbulls skipper for a 2-ball duck.
Despite Barnwell’s departure, Damion Vantull launched another ferocious counter-attack, plundering 22 from 10 balls which included three maximums.
When Vantull fell in the seventh
over to Nedd leaving the Pitbulls on 73/3 needing just 24 more to win, the Pitbulls seemed to be heading to an easy victory.
However, Nedd struck again in the same over, removing Singh to spark a mini-collapse, breathing life into the Jaguars defence of their total with the Pitbulls on 74/4. Dick then had a double strike in the eighth over, having Jeremiah Scott (1) LBW and Malcolm Hubbard (0) caught to leave the game hanging in the balance with the Pitbulls chase in danger of imploding at 75/6.
Dindiyal’s 9th over brought about two more dismissals to leave the crowd at Enmore on the edge of their seats; first Dindiyal had Jonathan Rampersaud (2) out caught while Swamy (4) was run out with the Pitbulls on 92/8 at the end of the 9th over.
Needing five runs off the last over, the Pitbulls remained
favourites in the run chase while the Jaguars only needed two wickets to win. Whether it was a roll of the dice or a poor decision overall, the Jaguars’ skipper Savory, a wicket-keeper batsman, decided to bowl the final over.
It only took the Pitbulls three deliveries to seal the victory as he bowled a wide, conceded two runs and had a six smashed off his third delivery to spark wild celebrations in the Pitbulls camp.
For his role as opener, Junior Sinclair was adjudged man of the final for his fireworks at the top of the run chase.
Earlier in the day, the Pitbulls had sealed their place in the final by beating the Berbice Caimans by three wickets.
They successfully chased down 80 in 9.5 overs after restricting the Caimans to 80/7 (10 overs). The Jaguars had
emerged successful over their fellow county franchise, the Essequibo Anacondas, winning by three wickets in a successful chase of 39 from six overs.
The tournament, a brain-child of the GCB, was played in an initial double round-robin format, with six franchises (Demerara Hawks, Demerara Pitbulls, Berbice Caimans, Berbice Piranhas, Essequibo Anacondas, Essequibo Jaguars) each playing 10 games. At the end of the round robin stage, the Essequibo Anacondas led the way with 13 points having compiled the most wins. The Caimans were second on 12 points, followed by the Pitbulls and Jaguars with 11 points apiece.
Due to heavy rainfall on some match days, points were split equally between the respective teams.