Super 50: A statistical breakdown of the tournament so far
The premier List A tournament of the West Indies is underway in the islands of Antigua. The tournament came as a blessing in disguise for the Windies cricket fan as most of the superstars of cricket from the Caribbean were available for the premier tournament as they decided not to travel to Pakistan for the PSL or to Bangladesh for the West Indies team tour citing the covid-19 threat. All the matches are being played at only two stadiums of Antigua, i.e. Sir Vivian Richards Stadium and Coolidge Cricket ground.
Although the tournament began in a dull manner, with one-sided affairs dominating the results. However, once the first round was over games started getting closer, so much so that it became a virtual quarterfinal between Barbados Pride and Jamaica Scorpions in their last league game. The winner between them, Scorpions eventually qualified for the Semis.
Jamaica' Journey
The journey of the Scorpions itself was a spectacle nonetheless. After losing their first three games, they got themselves in a situation where winning their last two games could have seen them through to semis. They did exactly what was required, defending 220 against Leeward islands in a rain-curtailed game. In that game, they were struggling at 135-9 before Fabien Allen got together with number 11 Jeavor Royal to add precious 85 runs and give something for the team to fight for. Then, while bowling, they defended 41 off 30 balls with the opposition’s five wickets intact to win the game by six runs.
In their last league game, they were the underdogs. Even after getting all out for 218 against a strong batting lineup of Barbados that included the likes of Shai Hope, Jason Holder, Roston Chase and Shamarh Brooks, the Scorpions not only defended the total but defended well enough to beat the Pride by 51 runs and get into the semis with momentum by their side.
Here is the list of all the matches played in the tournament.
Points Table
Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel topped the table winning all of their five games quite comfortably. Second were Guyana Jaguars who lost only one game and that was against the T&T. While both Jamaica and Windward Islands were at 8 points, Windward due to their better run rate qualified at the third spot. Windward won against Jamaica to add it to their opening match win against the Leeward Islands and get to eight points from their first three games. But since that win, they have lost two games by huge margins and are the only team going into the semis with two losses in their two previous games.
Click here for the full Points Table
Most Runs
Jason Mohammed of T&T who has hit one hundred and one fifty, and has got a total of 258 runs from his five innings, remaining unbeaten twice is the leading run-scorer of the tournament. He bailed out the Red Steel twice. Once against Barbados, he scored a match-winning hundred (122) to chase down 254. During that innings, Mohammed held up one innings even as he kept on losing partners and only got out when the team was sitting at the gates of victory, just two runs away from it. His other innings came against Guyana in T&T’s last league game. The 34-year-old scored unbeaten 82 to see his team through even as the Reds were dealt two early blows and their back was against the wall.
Behind him is his own teammate Evin Lewis with 237 runs from five innings, followed by Lewwards Islands’ Canadian import Nitish Kumar with 233 runs.
Most Wickets
Guyanese left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie leads the charts with 12 scalps from five innings. He has taken four wickets in a match twice, once against Leewards and once against Jamaica, both the times taking his team to the victory. He is followed by Leewards’ quick Quinton Boatswain with 11 wickets from four winnings. Behind these two is Andre McCarthy of Jamaica. The only reason the part-time off-break bowler, who is more known for his batting made it to the list was because of his unbelievable match-winning spell of 6/16 against Barbados where he broke the back of the Pride getting them down to 167 all out from 152/3 in just 51 balls. Carter took six of the last seven wickets.
 "Abhishek Singh")
