Grenadines Divers vs Dark View Explorers – 7th Match VPL 5
Explorers won the toss and chose to bowl.
Darius Martin bowled the first delivery short outside off and Walton guided it to the vacant third man boundary. Martin was inconsistent and paid again bowling short outside off stump and he was guided past fine third man again for another boundary. He went short again and the pitch clearly not as quick as it was yesterday, made it easy for Walton to pull over short fine leg. Dalzell bowling the 2nd over strayed down the leg side to concede five wides. Dalzell bounced back well bowling some good deliveries that beat the edge of Hackshaw’s bat but the over was ruined as he strayed on Walton’s leg and was help down to long leg for a boundary.
Deron Greaves bowled the 3rd over and made the break through, tempting Walton and his attempt at a big hit only flew to short third man. Dalzell bowling a pretty good line and length got Hackshaw’s wicket during the 4th over and restricted them to 32/2 at the end of the powerplay. Dalzell returned figures of 1/14 from his 2 overs.
Deron Greaves removed Ryshon Williams during the 5th over to leave Divers sinking at 35/3 at the half way stage. Greaves finished with 2/5 from his 2 overs. Divers couldn’t get any air in their innings as they sunk further to 39/4 after 6 overs. Divers got a couple of sixes during the 7th and 8th over but still found scoring difficult as they could only motor to 55/5. Divers finished their innings on 78/8. Navin Stewart picked up 3/21 from his 2 overs. Chadwick Walton was the top scorer with 20 from 11 deliveries, which contained 3 fours.
Explorers in their chase was struggling to get the ball off the square in the powerplay. They only hit 1 four and 1 six to move sedately to 25/1, the pitch proving to be difficult to score fluently. At the half way stage, Explorers were 28/1, requiring 51 runs from 30 deliveries.
Explorers seemed to have had enough of being kept under restrain as Descarte advanced down the track and smashed Strough over mid wicket for six. Walker followed suit in the 7th over by hitting Bibby over mid wicket for six. Bibby was not disciplined and bowled a few extras, the over costing 14 runs to push Explorers to 53/1 after 7 overs and requiring 26 from 18 deliveries.
Strough delivered a wonderful 8th over, only conceding 6 runs and getting the key wicket of Descarte to peg Explorers back to 59/2. Explorers could only get 4 runs from the penultimate over as Dean Browne struck gold as he removed Walker and Greaves to leave Explorers wanting 16 runs from 6 deliveries.
Bennitton Stapleton was given the responsibility of the last over and he started brilliantly, dismissing the dangerous Navin Stewart for a golden duck. Denson Hoyte came in and smashed consecutive length deliveries for six over mid wicket. The scores were levelled as a wide was delivered and the batsmen scrambled two runs in a comedy of errors. Hoyte drove the 4th delivery down the ground to pull of Explorers first win of the tournament.
Rickford Walker top scored with 29 from 22 deliveries, hitting 1 four and 2 sixes. Dean Browne was sensational with the ball, taking 2/7 from his 2 overs.
Grenadines Divers 78/8 (10 overs)
Dark View Explorers 82/5 (9.4 overs)