USVI win first 20/20 match
ST JOHN’S, Antigua â A purposeful all-round performance helped the United States Virgin Islands to a comfortable 47-run victory in the opening match of the historic and lucrative Stanford Twenty20 Cup, at the Stanford Cricket Ground, on Tuesday.
Having set the Dutch side a competitive target of 146 to win, the USVI bowled with discipline and fielded with energy to achieve victory when they dismissed St Maarten 98 in 18 overs.{{more}}
Steven Evans struck five fours and one six in the top score of 39 from 32 balls for St Maarten. No other batsman passed 20 runs.
USVI captain Shirville Huggins was later named Man-of-the-Match, and John Florent and Dane Weston all collected two wickets apiece for their side.
Huggins had hit five fours and one six in the top score of 51 from 45 balls to be the rock upon which his side built their total of 145 for seven in their allocation of 20 overs.
He shared two vital partnerships with Alderman Lesmond, who scored 10, and former Leeward Islands batsman Clifford Walwyn, whose 25 from 29 balls contained a couple of boundaries.
Then new-ball bowlers Weston and Hamish Anthony, the former Leeward Islands and West Indies fast-medium bowler, gave the USVI the kind of start they craved when they reduced St Maarten to 16 for three in the first four overs.
Weston bowled Gary Solomon for a duck in the first over and had John Eugene, the former St Lucia and Windward Islands batsman, caught in the deep for 12 in the third over.
Anthony then bowled Romaine Doodnauth for a duck, and the Dutch side never recovered from these early setbacks.
Earlier, Huggins added 41 for the second wicket with Lesmond, who was stumped off Lionel Ritchie in the sixth over, then put on 47 for the third wicket with Walwyn, who backed up too far and failed to beat wicketkeeper Trocard’s throw to bowler Doodnauth in the 15th over.
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