Simmons, Rampaul crush sorry Leewards
Published:Saturday | January 15, 2011 | 12:00 AM
NORTH SOUND, Antigua (CMC):
Discarded West Indies batsman Lendl Simmons and pacer Ravi Rampaul underpinned a clinical Trinidad and Tobago performance, as they beat a spineless Leeward Islands by 56 runs to open their Caribbean Twenty20 campaign in style here on Thursday night.
Scores: T&T 153 for five off 20 overs (Lendl Simmons 83, Adrian Barath 26, Darren Bravo 20; Lionel Baker 1-29). LEEWARDS 97 all out off 18.4 overs (Justin Athanaze 26, Devon Thomas 22; Ravi Rampaul 5-9, Sherwin Ganga 2-12, Kevon Cooper 2-30.
The attacking right-handed Simmons, ignored since the one-day tour of Australia in February last year, smacked an intelligent 83 to propel the former regional T20 kings to 153 for five after Daren Ganga won the toss and batted.
Rampaul then snatched a remarkable five wickets for nine runs to scythe through weak-willed Leewards batting and send them tumbling for a paltry 97 with eight balls to spare, as T&T made a bold statement to their Group B rivals.
Simmons, who celebrates his 26th birthday later this month, cracked five fours and five sixes off just 62 balls as he carried the T&T batting before being run out off the penultimate ball of the innings.