Arguably the most exciting match of the ongoing Tape Ball Cricket league, hosted by the Youth and Sports Department, was played at the ET Willet Park, on the evening of Wednesday 7th November.
Rawlins was duly awarded the points, when the Highlights team failed to show, for the first scheduled match of the evening.
The attention then turned to the feature game of the evening: Empire v SDA Jets
Empire won the toss and Skipper Adelvin Phillip immediately decided to bat first.
Their batting generally struggled versus the tight bowling of the SDA Jets and they crawled up to 75 for 7 from their allotted 10 overs.
SDA Jets when they batted, were off to a poor start, as chief runs getter, Curtis Mortis Morton Jr, holed out at long on and then the unfortunate run out of Zavero Forbes, compounded the issue, as he got into a bit of a mix up with Curtis Morton Sr, who deliberately ran past him, in an effort to sacrifice his wicket for Forbes.
This can be verified with the TV replays, but the umpire ruled Forbes out, after the constant promptings of Ralph SUPER CHICK on Micro phone.
Morton then stabilized the ship, in partnership with the more aggressive Bernette NUTSY Thompson who eventually got caught at long on.
It came down to a heart stuttering 6 runs required from the final over.
Under pressure, Merchant bowled a superb over.
His first ball, dismissed Thompson, then Morton Sr swung lustily and missed the next three deliveries.
With ball five, he went deep into his crease and swung hard. The ball sailed towards cow’s corner, for a well needed boundary.
Two runs needed from two balls.
Merchant moved in to bowl to Morton—A peach of a yorker, missed the swinging bat of Morton—and timber! Bowled him!
The Empire men and their nervous fan base, raced across the field in wild celebrations. They had indeed won and qualified for the semifinals, in the process.
It means therefore, that the semifinal match- ups set for Saturday night-11th November, will be as follows:
6 pm GT United v Empire
7.45 pm-All stars v SDA Jets
The grand finals will be played on Sunday 11th November at the ET Willet Park