10 runs is all that stood between Windies “B” team and Canada in the opening match in Group A of Cricket West Indies (CWI) regional Super50 match at Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba.
Batting first after winning the toss, Windies “B” posted 300+ riding on a century by veteran Windies player, Marlon Samuels, with good contributions coming in from Yannic Cariah and Kimani Melius. Romesh Don scalped a 5-for for Canada with Salman Nazar accounting for three wickets.
Most of the Canadian batsmen got good starts and there were three half-centuries during the innings but none could go on to make a bigger score as Canada looked poised to finish way below the target if not for an unbeaten 65 runs partnership for the 9th wicket between Harsh Thaker and Sukhdeep Brar, which almost took them to an unlikely win, only to fall short by 10 runs in the end.
Canada are being led by ex-proteas (South Africa) player Davy Jacobs, who has qualified to play for them. Jacobs also had a coaching stint with Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, Mumbai Indians, before joining the Canadian ranks.
Brief Scores:
Windies B 302/8 in 50 overs (Marlon Samuels 101, Yannic Cariah 73, Kimani Melius 46, Leonardo Julian 27, Romesh Don 5/31, Salman Nazar 3/60) beat Canada 292/8 in 50 overs (Rodrigo Thomas 63, Srimantha Wijeyeratne 57, Harsh Thaker 52 n.o, Nitish Kumar 31, Sukhdeep Brar 25 n.o, Yannic Cariah 2/60, Chemar Holder 2/61, Odean Smith 2/69, Bryan Charles 1/29) by 10 runs
