Barnwell is new singlewicket champ

Barnwell is new singlewicket champ
Published on Jul 30, 2015, 8:52 pm AST


NEW SINGLEWICKET CHAMP: Christopher Barnwell


Christopher Barnwell produced a scintillating performance to clinch the Caribbean Singlewicket Cricket Tournament at Guaracara Park, Pointe-a-Pierre on Wednesday night.

The top Guyanese all-rounder, Barnwell reversed his misfortune in two previous tournaments to win the grand final in a convincing fashion over Evin Lewis of Trinidad and Tobago.

The final was a shortened affair with each all-rounder facing one over as the players had to contend with intermittent rain for the semi-finals and final.

Lewis scored just nine runs in the final, including one dismissal which brought a penalty deduction of three runs. Barnwell needed only three balls to overhaul his opponent’s total.

The little fancied Lewis, an opening batsman, was the giant killer on the night, disposing of favourite Dwayne Bravo to win his three-man group, which also included Marlon Richards.

A visibly tired Bravo defeated Richards in his first game, blasting the tournament’s highest score of 44 runs in his allotted two overs. He then restricted Richards to 30.

That set up the clash between Bravo and Lewis, who also had victory over Richards. Bravo set 27 for Lewis to chase and the young cricketer overhauled that score with one ball to spare in the assigned two overs. Lewis then disposed of another seeded player, Tobago’s Navin Stewart in the semi-final, before he reached his first final in this form of the game.

The other semi-final featured St Lucia Zouks’, Andre Fletcher, who topped his four-man group with emphatic wins over Guyana’s Narsingh Deonarine and Trinidadians Imran Khan and Richard Kelly.

The Grenadian, in his first appearance in singlewicket cricket surprised many with his guile in bowling leg-breaks and fulfilled the organisers’ estimation of him as an ‘X-factor’ player in the competition.

However, Fletcher was not competitive against Barnwell who dismissed his opponent three times bowling brisk medium pace, resulting in penalty runs deductions that left Fletcher with only four legal runs.

Barnwell won the game in only two balls.

The organisers had earlier revised the fixtures following the late withdrawal of two players, including Kieron Pollard who flew out the same day to handle urgent family matters abroad and Kevon Cooper.

The tournament was reduced from four groups of three to two groups of three and one group of four.

Fletcher topped the group of four while Stewart was second.

Barnwell and Lewis won the two three-player groups.

The competition also exposed some of the talented fieldsmen and wicketkeepers who play in the Premiership Division of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board’s domestic competition.

After the tournament, the organisers re-affirmed their commitment to continue the growth of the tournament which is promoted by Glory TV and organised by the Singlewicket Cricket Foundation.

Well congrats to Barnwell and I hoe that all rounders from other countries such as Jamaica and Barbados will take part in future tournaments.

good job !