PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Trinidad and Tobago Red Force were crowned Regional Super50 champions for a second straight year after dominating a star-studded Barbados Pride by 72 runs in a lopsided final here on Saturday night.
Stylish left-hander Darren Bravo perished for 97, agonisingly short of three figures, as Red Force piled up a challenging 270 for seven. But Pride collapsed to 31 for four in reply and never recovered, eventually slumping to 198 all out off 42.5 overs.
Shai Hope top-scored with a patient 50, while West Indies team-mate Carlos Brathwaite blasted a quick-fire 46 off 32 balls to give Pride a flicker of hope. However, once they were separated, another three wickets fell for just 10 runs as the innings tailed away to 149 for nine in the 35th over.
Tail-enders Sulieman Benn and Jomel Warrican frustratingly held up Red Force’s victory celebrations by adding a breezy 49 off 51 deliveries for the last wicket. The adventurous Benn struck 27 not out off 28 balls, while Warrican made 24 from 31 deliveries before being bowled trying to heave seamer Rayad Emrit, sparking long-awaited celebrations among the Red Force faithful.
Emrit was the best bowler with three for 46, while off-spinner Jon-Russ Jaggesar (two for 30), fast bowler Marlon Richards (two for 38) and left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein (two for 55) all finished with two wickets each.
“I’m sure [the team] are feeling very happy inside,” an elated captain Jason Mohammed said as the celebrations got under way. “The squad that we had at the beginning of the tournament, people said we would not have gotten out of the group stage, so I’m sure it’s a very special feeling for those guys, and so too for our senior guys in the team with the way we played throughout the tournament.”
Man-of-the-match Bravo anchored three successive productive partnerships to leave Red Force in good shape. He added 75 for the fourth wicket with Mohammed, who scored 31, added another 57 for the fifth wicket with Denesh Ramdin, who struck 26, and a further 43 for the sixth wicket with Emrit, who finished 18 not out.
Bravo’s knock, his third half-century in as many innings in the tournament, was laced with eight fours and two sixes and came from 104 balls. He looked in fine touch, raising his first 50 off 69 deliveries with four fours and a six – a clean hit over mid-wicket off medium pacer Dwayne Smith.
And after missing out on a century in last Wednesday’s semi-final against Guyana Jaguars, when he was out for 95, Bravo seemed certain this time around to notch his sixth regional one-day hundred.
However, one ball after surviving a concerted appeal for a catch at the wicket off seamer Jason Holder in the penultimate over of the innings, Bravo chased another wide delivery to nick a catch to stand-in wicketkeeper Shai Hope.