CATEGORY:SPORTS
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By Trevor Thwaites (St.George's correspondent)


ST.GEORGE’S, Grenada: The National Cricket Team has earned much respected and admiration from the region following a splendid display in its opening match of the Inaugural Stanford 20/20 Tournament in St John’s, Antigua. Grenada fielded, bowled and to a lesser extent, batted superbly to overwhelm Dominica by six wickets in its opening game of the Lucrative US$1 Million Tournament at the Sticky Wicket Cricket Facility last week Saturday.

The team produced a telling bowling and fielding performance to rout Dominica for a mere 83 in 17.2 overs. Fast bowlers Neilon Pascal and Trevor Walcott bowled fast and straight continuously hitting the 86MPH mark to be the fastest bowlers on show during the first week of the competition. Pascal, the West Indies Under-19 player grabbed 2 for 15 from his four overs, while Walcott took one for 8 from three overs.

All- rounder John Sylvester bagged 2 for 15 with his medium pacers from three overs and there was a wicket apiece for spinners’ skipper Rawle Lewis and Ronald Ettienne. The team fielded superbly, with three of the wickets coming by way of the run out route. Skipper Balty Watts 22, Ezikel Francis 17 and Wayne Phillip 16 were the top scorers for Dominica. Grenada began its reply impressively with openers Andre Fletcher and Clevroy Antoine racing to 25 in the first three overs.

Dominica through spinners Shane Shilling ford and Roy Marshall were able to check the scoring rate and capture a couple wickets. But it was to no avail as Grenada romped home in style reaching 84 for 4 in 17.2 overs. Young Andre Fletcher led the way. The West Indies Youth Player was named man of the match for an enterprising unbeaten 47 from 49 deliveries, which included four fours. Shillingford captured 2 wickets for 8 runs to be the best bowler for Dominica.

It was certainly an encouraging day for the national team in the lucrative tournament. It picked a handsome pay US$35,000 for the good showing. Fletcher’s man of the match awards earned the team US$25,000 and Trevor Walcott’s super stop, which resulted in one of the three run outs, won the play of the game- a reward of US$10,000.

The local team is getting ready for its second round match of the competition next Wednesday, July 26, against St Vincent and the Grenadines who comfortably defeated the United States Virgin Islands in their encounter yesterday, Tuesday July 18, 2006 in Antigua.