Central Sports will have the opportunity to defend their Premiership 1 T20 title in the tournament final after getting past Clarke Road United in the second semi-final final on the penultimate day of the TKR-sponsored T20 Festival at Queen’s Park Oval in St Clair, Friday night.
After being sent in to bat, Clarke Road posted 219 for eight off their 20 overs with Anderson Mahase hitting 47 off 40 balls and Joshua James chipping in with 34 off 14.
That total was helped by Central Sports giving away 45 extras during the innings. However their batters made up for it in the chase, as they replied with 220 for three off 18.5 overs, with Roshan Primus putting them on course for the win with his 34-ball 77 before Lendl Simmons (64 not out off 44 balls) and Terrance Hinds (40 not out off 17 balls) finished the job.
Central Sports lost openers Kamil Pooran (five) and Kjorn Ottley (13) in the first five overs and eventually crawled to 43 for two after the Powerplay before Primus and Simmons rescued the chase.
Primus was off the mark with a four off Ahkeel Mollon and he opened up even more by smashing Clevon Kalawan for the first six of the innings which came off the first ball after the Powerplay.
Both Simmons and Primus were dealing in sixes, hitting one each off Shiva Sankar in the eighth over.
But Primus was brutal. He smashed two more maximums off Kalawan in the ninth over as Central Sports reached 99 for two at the half-way point.
A four from Primus to the cover boundary took Central Sports to triple figures and another off Yannick Ottley over wide long on took the Barbadian to his half-century off 25 balls.
The century stand between Primus and Simmons came up in the next over, with “Prime Time” smashing a six and four off Sankar before depositing Mollon over long-off twice, to take the total past 150 in the 14th over.
Joshua James eventually broke the third-wicket stand, bowling Primus for 77 but the defending champions never lost momentum.
Simmons reached his half-century with a straight four off Ottley before Hinds ended the game in the penultimate over with two fours and six off the same bowler to seal the win with seven balls to spare.
Earlier, Clarke Road benefitted from some wayward bowling as they got off to a rapid start with Akeem Jordan conceding 20 runs in the first over.
Hinds (three for 36) pulled things back in the second over, with Anthony Bramble skying one to Rayad Emrit for 20, while Barbadian Jordan came back strong, bowling Vikash Mohan in the next over with the score on 40 for two.
But another wayward over, this time by Hinds, gifted Clarke Road 19 runs in the fourth over as they blazed their way to 59 for two.
Clarke Road reach 80 for three at the end of the Powerplay and 99 for four at the half-way mark, before they picked up the pace again with Mahase hitting six fours before he was caught by Jordan off Emrit with the score on 153 for six after 16 overs.
Dejourn Charles and Joshua James plundered 23 runs off the next over from Primus, with each batter getting a six off the medium pacer.
A couple of wides from Emrit and two misfields resulted in 18 runs coming off the 18th over, while a six by James off Primus took Clarke Road to 200 with 11 balls left in the innings.
Both James (34 off 14 balls) and Charles (17 off nine balls) fell in the penultimate over but the damage was already done, with Clarke Road scoring 66 runs in the final four overs.
However it still wasn’t enough to stop Central Sports’ march to today’s final where they will face PowerGen Penal from 7 pm.
Summarised scores
Premiership 1 semi-final 2
Clarke Road United 219-8 (Anderson Mahase 47, Joshua James 34; Terrance Hinds 3/36, Mikkel Govia 2/13) vs Central Sports 220-3 (18.5 overs) (Roshan Primus 77, Lendl Simmons 64 n.o., Terrance Hinds 40 n.o.)
--Central Sports won by seven wickets.
