WEST INDIES CHAMPIONSHIP - Pacers bowl Red Force to first title in 20 years

ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC):

Trinidad and Tobago Red Force’s pace quartet of Jayden Seales, Anderson Phillip, Terrance Hinds, and Joshua James ran through the Guyana Harpy Eagles’ line-up in impressive fashion to bowl their side to its first West Indies Championship title in two decades.

Given a realistic chance of capturing their fourth straight title after being set 281 for victory on yesterday’s final day, the Harpy Eagles could not contend with T&T’s fast bowlers and were routed for 139 in 35 overs just after lunch at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, handing their opponents their first four-day title since 2006.

Both sides would have fancied their chances of pushing for victory after the Harpy Eagles wrapped up T&T’s second innings for the addition of just two runs.

Resuming on 265 for eight, Evin Lewis failed to add to his overnight total of 122 before being dismissed by Gudakesh Motie, and Veerasammy Permaul snared the wicket of last man Anderson Phillip for a duck.

But the defending champions got off to a nightmare start in their run chase, with Seales having Matthew Nandu caught for a duck and Phillip dismissing Tagenarine Chanderpaul by way of the lbw route to reduce them to nine for two within the first four overs.

It proved to be a position they would not recover from, with T&T’s four-pronged attack responsible for the destruction.

Skipper Tevin Imlach hit three fours in his brief knock of 16 before he became Seales’ second victim, and when Phillip struck again to remove Kemol Savory, the Harpy Eagles were in real trouble at 61 for four.

James then joined in on the action by trapping Jonathan van Lange lbw for 10 and having Keemo Paul caught for 16, to see Guyana slip to 99 for six.

Kevlon Anderson and Gudakesh Motie then combined for the biggest partnership of the innings, a 29-run stand for the seventh wicket.

But once Seales removed Anderson for the top score of 41 off 68 balls, Hinds mopped up the rest of the tail.

He began by bowling Motie for 18, then had Shamar Joseph caught behind for five before wrapping up the match by hitting the off stump of last man Nial Smith to spark wild celebrations among his teammates.

Hinds finished as the pick of T&T’s bowlers with 3-20, Seales claimed 3-39, while James (2-12) and Phillip (2-63) provided good support.