CHARLESTOWN, Nevis, July 9, 2010 (Press Release) - The members of the Brown Hill team and their entire bench swarmed onto the field at Grove Park as Captain Rosie Dunrod connected with the penultimate delivery to secure victory for her team.
In the tense encounter the Brown Hill team won the toss and elected to send the 2nd place Empire team in to bat first. The Empire batters never really came to terms with the bowling of the Brown Hill team, whose players incidentally looked sharper on the night.
Their batters were kept in check for the most part but eventually got some well needed runs towards the end of the innings.
They eventually got to 78 for 5 in 12 overs. Sherilyn Liburd and Catherine Joseph both top scored with 12 and There were all of 33 extras.
Kerisha Powell was the stand out bowler with 3 for 9; Rosie Dunrod 1 for 17 and Valerie Liburd 1 for 19.
Brown Hill in response looked determined to get the total and obviously played with a game plan. Rosie Dunrod and Claudia Saddler shared in a half century stand and even though they were not getting the boundaries, they ran some singles and twos that sometimes looked impossible but hey consistently beat the fielders to safety.
In the tense moment, with the crowd really enjoying what was obviously the best game of the league so far, it came down to 4 runs required off the final over. The Brown Hill supporters were screaming at the top of their lungs and when two balls were missed it eventually came down to two runs required from the last two deliveries. When Rosie Dunrod managed to get the penultimate ball away for the winning run, there was relief in the Brown Hill camp as they spilled onto the field of play. Brown Hill 79 for 1 in 11.5 overs. Rosie Dunrod batted through the innings to be 22 not out; Claudia Saddler 15 and Valerie Hanley 11 not out. Charmaine Walters got the lone wicket for 14 runs.
In the first match of the evening, St.James’ stayed in the hunt for a place in the top four by easily defeating Super Rockers by 36 runs.
St.James’ batted first and scored 96 for 6 from 12 overs: Junella Burke 27; Angel Leader 14 and Tressy Phillip 14. There were 26 extras. Chaliese Browne became the lead bowler in the preliminary rounds when she picked up 2 for 20; Olinda Elliot 1 for 15 and Jasmine Herbert 1 for 26.
Super Rockers always seemed ‘behind the eight ball’ and struggled to 60 for 7 from 12 overs: Olinda Elliot got 12 and Jasmine Joshua 9.
President Ronald Powell in his bid to ensure that the semi final encounters commence next weekend, ruled the previous game between the Alex Stars and St.James’ as a rained out game, thus leaving the last year champions short by one point behind Brown Hill in the bid for a top four spot.
The final points standings therefore are:
1st- Highlights Int 14 points
2nd—Empire 10 points
3rd St.Thomas’ 10 points
4th Brown Hill 8 points
5th St.James’ 7 points
6th Super Rockers 4 points
7th GT United 2 points
Alex Stars 1 point
The top and bottom four semi final matches will therefore commence this Saturday night—10th July with the first in the bottom four match ups as GT United takes on Super Rockers.
The second match will be the first in the top four match ups as Empire takes on St.Thomas’
Sunday 11th July – Match one in the bottom four semis—St.James’ engages Alex Stars'
Match two in the top four—Highlights Int takes on Brown Hill.
The best of three finals in the top and bottom draw will commence on Thursday 15th with the winners from this weekend’s encounters facing off for top honours. The matches are expected to climax next weekend with the closing ceremony and awards to the top performers.
