The curtains came down on the inaugural Prime Minister’s T20 Softball Cup with two exciting and highly competitive finals at the Everest Cricket Club ground on Sunday.
A colourful crowd, including Honourable Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo and his wife Sita Nagamootoo, Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan and Minister of Social Cohesion with responsibility for Sport Dr. George Norton, witnessed the thrilling encounters that saw Regal Masters and Speedboat All-Stars winning their respective championships. In the first final of the day, Regal Masters defeated New York Hustlers by 24 runs in the Masters category. A match-winning 68 from opener Mahase Chunilall and a fluent half century from Eric Thomas
The powerful and spirited Speed Boat team played a good brand of softball cricket on their way to championship glory
allowed Regal Masters to post a challenging 199-4, batting first. The in-form Chunilall and Mahendra Hardyal put Regal Masters on course with an opening stand of 96 before Hardyal who hit one four and a six was removed by E. Dodson for 28. Chunilall and Thomas continued to frustrate their overseas opponents as they took the score to 172 with level-headed batting. Chunilall struck one four and four maximums before he was caught off former Guyana U19 player Troy Gobin. The left-handed Thomas continued to attack and clobbered one four and six sixes in scoring 53. Dodson claimed 2-56 for NY Hustlers who made a valiant effort to push for victory. D. Chumney and former Everest and Guyana First Class player Shameer Sadloo added 32 for the opening strand before Chumney was taken of Parsram Persaud for 19. Sadloo and Gobin, two of NY Hustlers most dangerous batsmen, steadied the chase fairly before Sadloo was removed by Thomas for 36 (3×6).
Regal Masters played masterfully well to lift the first ever Prime Minister’s T20 Softball Cup
Gobin was then bowled by Laurie Singh for 23 (3×4,1×6) leaving the score at 88-3. Regal Masters then picked up a few quick wickets to restrict the scoring, but Chob Richmond and Roy Matura kept their team in the hunt with a seven-wicket stand of 49 before Matura was bowled by Hardyal for 24 after hitting three sixes. Richmond remained unbeaten on 44 with two fours and three sixes as NY Hustlers finished on 175-8. Thomas was the pick of the bowlers with 3-23. NY Hustlers collected $100,000, medals and a trophy for their efforts while the champions pocketed $500,000 along with a trophy and medals.
In the All-Star grand finale, Speedboat registered a 55-run win over Regal All-Stars in a gripping encounter. Speedboat rattled up 182-9 after they were inserted. Anand Bharat and Lennox Marks put on 24 for the opening stand before Marks was bowled by Amir Nizamudin for 15; Fazal Rafiek uprooted the stumps of Vikash Dhaniram (09) while Nizamudin bowled Greg Singh (15) before Esau accounted for Bharat for 24 leaving the score at 98-4. Speedboat then lost captain Wazir Hussain (02) who was bowled by his brother-in-law Safraz Esau, but Ricky Sargeant and Shazim Hussain propped up the total before Hussain was run out for 27 (1×4,3×6). Sargent made 21 as Esau claimed 3-38, Rafiek 2-40 and Nizamudin 2-42.
Regal Allstars were off to a terrible start when the in-form Sachin Singh (01) was bowled by Greg Singh, Richard Latif (04) was removed by Kishore Smith, Rafiek (04) had his stumps disturbed by Singh, Esau (06) was bowled by Mark Harold while Patrick Rooplall was dismissed without scoring leaving the score on 39-5. However, Navin Singh and Sewchand Budhu attempted to keep their team in the hunt with a stand of 33, but the run out of Singh for 15 and the dismissal of Budhu for 25 cemented Speedboat hold on the game; no other batsman managed double figures as Regal All-Stars were bowled out for 127 in 17.4 overs. Smith had 3-20 and Singh 2-26.
The pumped up winners won $600,000, a trophy and medals while Regal All-Stars settled for $100,000 and similar silverware.
Also in the presentation ceremony, Chunilall who was named Most Valuable player of the Masters Tournament received a 55-inch television set while Safraz Esau won the prize in the All-Star category and rode away with a Hero Motorcycle.
The tournament which was organized by the Georgetown Softball Cricket League Inc and ran under the patronage of Prime Minister Moses Nagamottoo started on Friday last with a total of 18 teams across the two categories.
