King, Cooper, hit half-centuries as Guyana downed in 5-wicket defeat

CWI Women’s T20 Blaze…

– Campbelle hits unbeaten 77 in vain

By Brandon Corlette

Although it was a different format, it produced similar results, Guyana opening their T20 Blaze campaign with a five-wicket defeat against Trinidad and Tobago at the National Stadium in the second of the three matches played.

Led by Shemaine Campbelle’s unbeaten 77 from 56 balls, Guyana reached 157-4 in 20 overs. In reply, Trinidad and Tobago achieved the target in 18.4 overs finishing on 161-5. Player of the match, Stacy Ann King, stroked 59 while Britney Cooper smashed 52 for the Trinidadians.
Having won the toss, Shemaine Campbelle elected to bat first, as the new-look opening pair of Sheneta Grimmond and Tremayne Smartt took the centre stage among the vocal handful of spectators present. Guyana got off to a busy start, as Grimmond and Smartt added 29 runs for the opening partnership in four overs.

Grimmond was out via a return catch to spinner Anisa Mohammed for 21 from 17 balls, smacking four crisp boundaries. At the power-play, Guyana were 36-1 batting at a run-rate of six per over. Smartt and Shemaine Campbelle consolidated in a 36-run partnership that ended when Smartt was out stumped for 22 from 25 balls.

Campbelle, who got off to a slow start, progressed nicely throughout the innings. After she was dropped twice in the 40s, she shifted gear, hitting boundaries at will. After Campbelle lost Shabika Gajnabi for seven via the run out route, she added 54 runs for the fifth wicket partnership with Akaze Thompson.
Campbelle smoked Anisa Mohammed into the deep mid-wicket fence for a maximum, and finished the innings hitting Karishma Ramharack for two sixes down the ground and two fours in the 24-run final over.
Once more leading from the front with the bat, Campbelle hit six fours and three sixes in 77 from 56 balls, but lacked significant support once again. Bowling for the Trinidadians, Anisa Mohammed had 2-35, while Lee Ann Kirby had 1-22.
In Trinidad’s run chase, they got off to a flyer, as the openers Stacy Ann King and Lee Ann Kirby hit 68 runs in 6.3 overs, the Guyanese bowlers failing to intimidate the explosive duo. Kirby was dismissed for a swashbuckling 31 from 19 balls when she was removed by Akaze Thompson.
Vice-captain Renice Boyce came in, and played a fine cut shot for four before she was out caught at mid-off by Mandy Mangru off the bowling of Smartt for six. New-comer Shania Abdool (02) came and went cheaply, but the innovative Britney Cooper partnered King and added 58 valuable runs for the fourth wicket.
Stacy Ann King, the 35-year-old Trinidadian who played 66 ODIS and 76 T20Is for Windies, swept the ball and rotated the strike brilliantly. Her partner Britney Cooper improvised hitting reverse sweeps and scoop shots.
She made Shabika Gajnabi her target, smashing five fours in six balls. After Gajnabi was taking to the cleaners, Cooper overcame an illness which caused her to throw-up, and played a match winning knock of 52 not out. King was leg before to Kaysia Schultz for 59 from 48 balls, reaching the boundaries five times and clearing it once.
Cooper sealed the game in style, hitting a boundary into mid-wicket. Bowling for Guyana, Kaysia Schultz and Mandy Mangru, who were introduced belatedly in the attack, got one wicket each. Tremayne Smartt and Akaze Thompson also had one wicket each in a losing effort.
Guyana will meet Leeward Islands today, March 29, 2019, at the National Stadium at Providence from 9:00h local time.