Gladiators edge out Revellers in three-run thriller

Women’s CPL T10 Courts Invitational tournament…

The Courts Gladiators have defeated the NLCB Revellers by three runs in Saturday’s CPL Women’s T10 Courts Invitational Tournament played at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago.

The Revellers had prevailed by eight wickets in the NLCB Challenge match played on Thursday last, and it looked like the outcome was going to be repeated when the Gladiators were restricted to 66/6 from their 10 overs. But in the absence of star player Stafanie Taylor, the Revellers came up short, on 63/6, despite Chinelle Henry’s unbeaten 17 and Stacy-Ann King’s 11 off five balls to go with her three wickets in the first half of the game.
The Revellers were always behind the rate after a tidy opening over from Shakera Selman. Hayley Matthews and Shabika Gajnabi then struck with successive deliveries to remove both openers: Jodian Morgan, smartly stumped by Kycia Knight, and Britney Cooper, who went cheaply. That left the Revellers on 7/2 and up against it.
Natasha McLean hit two boundaries before holing out to Kyshona Knight at deep cover for 14; and
when Afy Fletcher bowled Chedean Nation to leave the Revellers on 33/4 with just 20 balls remaining, the game appeared to be heading decisively the Gladiators’ way.
King and Henry had other ideas though. They added 22 runs in the next 12 balls, to leave the team needing only 12 from nine balls. King was then run out, and that proved decisive, as the Gladiators held on to leave both sides with a win each from the two matches.
Earlier, Kycia Knight and Matthews had again impressed for the Gladiators at the top of the order. They had shared a 54-run partnership for the Gladiators in Thursday’s NLCB Challenge defeat; and this time, with Kycia moved up to open alongside Matthews, they put on 41 for the first wicket.
Matthews (26 from 23) picked up a couple of boundaries with trademark cut shots and another with a fine leg glance, while Kycia pulled one four in her 15 from 13 balls; but, in successive balls, the two fell in identical fashion: caught by McLean when attempting big hits down the ground off King.
The Gladiators never recovered their momentum. King added a third wicket: Sheneta Grimmond, slicing to Felicia Walters at backward point, for just 2.
Kyshona Knight, looking to get things moving again, picked up a one-bounce four through midwicket, but was then bowled via inside edge-and-pad off Henry for seven.
Qiana Joseph pumped the only six of the innings over wide long-on to start stand-in skipper Anisa Mohammed’s final over of the 10, but was bowled by the next ball.Mohammed was on a hat-trick when Gladiators skipper Afy Fletcher ran past the next to be stumped ‘by a distance’ by Reniece Boyce. The hat-trick ball was survived, as the Gladiators scrambled to 66/6 and a total that would prove just about defendable. (CPL)