The rain played a major part in washing out two highly anticipated matches in the Ink Plus, Crown Mining Enterprise and Elegance Jewellery-sponsored Softball Tournament scheduled for the Jai Hind cricket ground, Albion last Sunday.
The home team, Albion Masters, was down to play Regal Masters and Success Masters, but persistent rainfall made those fixtures impossible. However, the matches scheduled for the Malteenoes Sports Club ground went on as planned.
In the Open category, it was a matter of making hay while the sun shone for Farm XI, as they beat Success Enforcers and Aditya’s XI in consecutive games. In their opening game of the day, Farm XI got 65 (8×6; 2×4) from Rawl Reid, and 61 (6×6; 1×4) from Sheldon Adams on their way to 178 for 4 from 15 overs using the small ball.
Fishermen are slowly becoming a softball powerhouse
Bowling for Success, Puran John grabbed 2/20 from his three overs.
In reply, Success fell short by 30 runs after they ran into Ameer Khan with 4/32 and Adams with 2/26 each from their quota of three overs. Success were restricted to 148-9 from their 15 overs, with Nandsham Boodhoo stroking 24.
In their second match of the day, Farm XI beat Aditya’s XI by 31 runs in their 10-overs a-side contest. Farm had first strike and mustered 118-5 as Rishi Omesh picked up 2-18. Suresh Sham then kept Aditya’s XI in the contest with a brisk 40 (4x6s), but kept losing partners at the other end to eventually surrender at 87-6 from their 10 overs, with Adams 2/10 (2 overs) and Travis Alphonso 3/15 (2 overs) doing the damage.
In the Masters Over-40 category, Wellman Masters experienced torrid times on the field, losing their two games that were spread over Sunday and on Tuesday, May 1. On Sunday, they lost to RR Masters by two wickets with two balls to spare in a close encounter, then on Tuesday they went down to Fishermen Masters by an even closer margin – the smallest margin of one run.
On Sunday, Wellman batted first and reached 129-6 from their 20 overs, using the big white ball. Left-handed batsman Jagdish Persaud top-scored with 39, and got support from Greg DeFranca with 30 and Lloyd Ruplall with 20. Raymond Harper and Rudolph Johnson claimed 2 for 17 and 2 for 27 respectively from their quota of three overs.
Ejaz Mohamed then scored an attractive, shot-filled 93 (11×6; 2×4), which saw RR Masters finishing the game on 135-8 from 19.4 overs. Latchman Kallicharran was the pick of the Wellman bowlers with 2/16 from his four overs, but this was not enough to save his team from that close defeat.
On Labour Day and at the same venue, Troy Ramsaywack smacked a quick fire 69, and got support from B. Persaud with 28 and Unis Yusuf 24, as the Fishermen Masters finished on 161 for 7 from their 20 overs. Greg DeFranca (2/14), Wayne Jones (2/20) and Sheldon Perch (1/19) were among the wickets, trying to stem the flow of runs, which gave their side a great chance of victory at the half way stage.
However, when Wellman replied, they got 31 from Jagdish Persaud, 27 from Basil Persaud, and 19 from Nandram Samlall. Those turned out to be too little, as they finished on 160 for 6 from their 20 overs. Zameer Hassan with 3-26, D. Thomas and Ramo Malone with one wicket each were spot on to claim victory by just a single run.
Organized by the Georgetown Softball Cricket League Inc. (GSCL Inc.), the tournament has attracted the best softball teams in the country playing for $100,000 winning prize in the Masters’ category and $50,000 in the Open category. For the tournament, teams were not required to pay an entrance fee.
The tournament continues this Sunday and fixtures will be released on Saturday.
