Fortune favoured the brave WIEP in successful Super50

Colonial Medical Insurance Regional Super50 Cup review…

By Brandon Corlette

Who would have had their money on the West Indies Emerging Players (WIEP) to win the 2019 Colonial Medical Insurance Super50 Cup? Not a lot of people. After 43 matches between November 6 and December 1, WIEP conquered the Caribbean to clinch a well-deserved Super50 title.

For most of these guys, the winning feeling has not yet sunk in. Call them discarded or exiled players who did not make their regional teams, this young group displayed self-belief and bravery which brought them success.

The road to success
The WIEP finished their group stages with four wins and three defeats, and gained qualification to the semis after another team’s fate went in their favour. That team were Guyana Jaguars, who had to simply defeat the USA to book a spot in the semis. It was not the case, Jaguars lost and the semi-final slot went to the brave WIEP. Fortune favoured them.

Rewinding the clock, WIEP lost by two wickets to Jaguars in their opening match, which was a final-ball thriller. The WIEP bounced back with a six-wicket win against the USA and further enjoyed a four-match winning streak, including wins against regional giants Trinidad and Tobago Red Force and Guyana Jaguars.
WIEP lost to the USA in their return fixture followed by an abandoned match and a humiliating 10-wicket defeat to Red Force in their final Group game. The WIEP made the most of their opportunity in the semis, defeating favourites Barbados Pride by three wickets and completing their successful season with a 205-run win over Leeward Islands Hurricanes.

In the process, WIEP had some standout players: the Guyanese duo of Kevin Sinclair and Ashmead Nedd were among them. Joshua Da Silva, Keon Harding, and Justin Greaves were the other stand-out performers. Da Silva scored 310 runs at an average of 44.28 for WIEP, including a brilliant 103 against the Volcanoes.
Harding, the paceman, had 18 wickets while Greaves scored 295 runs with three half-centuries. The local boys, Nedd and Sinclair, who were the first Guyanese to hold the Super50 championship in 15 years, kept things tight but they exploded in the business games. Nedd starred in the semis with 4-29, a Player-of-the-Match performance against Pride. The West Indies Under-19 player took his tally to 11 wickets in six matches, averaging 10.27 with an excellent economy rate of 3.27.
Sinclair, on the other hand, not only had the best celebration in the Super50, he had the best economy rate. The Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club all-rounder bagged 13 wickets at 14.69 runs apiece with a top-economy rate of 2.87. He saved his best bowling performance for the final where he bagged 4-20.

Powells, Bravo prove point with bat
Exiled West Indies Test opener Kieran Powell, like most discarded players, made their bats talk in the Super50. The left-hander, who last played a match for West Indies in December 2018, finished as the leading scorer with 524 runs, including two of the 17 centuries scored in the tournament.
Darren Bravo, who is a class act, looked above this level, scoring 481 runs averaging 96. Rovman Powell scored 412 runs with two blazing centuries while Devon Thomas scored 368 runs. Andre McCarthy’s 363 runs sealed the top five leading batsmen in the Super50.

Berridge leads the pack
Leeward Islands had the leading run- scorer and the leading wicket-taker. Fast-bowler Sheo Berridge bagged 23 wickets, leading the Hurricanes’ pack in finesse. The right-arm seamer had an economy of 4.95 and an average of 18.52 with three four-wicket hauls. Out-of-favour West Indies white-ball bowler Ashley Nurse had 19 wickets, Harding had 18 wickets while Oshane Thomas bagged 17 scalps. Imran Khan had 17 wickets to close off the top five bowlers.
In the modern era where 300 runs per team in an innings is regulation, teams struggled to score this amount consistently. With only three instances of 300+ totals, questions of the pitches may be raised. Jamaica scored 331-9 and 330-8 in 50 overs while Barbados Pride scored 305-8. Batsmen have failed to convert fifties into centuries despite 17 centuries being scored across the season.
The Super50 has now become an unpredictable tournament: Combined Campus and Colleges (CCC) Marooners won in 2018 while WIEP continued the trend where the underdog teams upset the big boys.