By E. Glenford Prescott
Defending champions FLOW Radcliffe served notice of their intention to end the 2017 domestic cricket season as back-to-back NLA Premier division champions with another clinical victory, this time an eight-wicket win over Carl Joseph Law Chambers ASCO at the Sion Hill Playing Field.
Scores: FLOW Radcliffe 200/7& 30/ 2 Carl Joseph Law Chambers ASCO 99 &130.
FLOW Radcliffe, batting first after winning the toss, declared at 200/7 on the back of a powerful half century by SVG top order batsman, Gidron Pope.
Pope came to the wicket in the second over after captain Lindon James (4), who had moved himself up the order, went with total on 8.
He began his innings in a watchful mode and did not hit his first boundary until his 15th delivery-pulling a short delivery through midwicket. The stocky lefthander, in partnership with opener Romano Pierre on a pitch “which was doing a bit”, kept their wicket intact, while moving the score along at a decent pace.
Pierre is a diminutive left-hander with a compact game against both spin and pace and able to play with ease on the front or back foot. On Saturday, in conditions that never totally allowed the batsmen to get the upper hand, he looked comfortable. Pope, on the other hand, regardless of the conditions, takes every opportunity to score and do so quickly, especially where the bowlers cannot maintain pressure. And this was the case with the inexperienced ASCO bowlers.
The pair took the total to 106 — a partnership of 98 — before Pierre (35) departed. He batted 122 minutes, faced 59 balls and struck, 4 fours. Pope, who was hitting the ball sweetly and looked good for a century, was next to go at 133/3 for a good 82. He faced 78 balls and struck 10 fours and 4 sixes.
Wayne Harper (35) and Richie Richards (27) then added 54 for the fourth wicket and the breaking of this partnership saw 4 wickets going down the addition 5 runs resulting in FLOW Radcliffe closing their innings shortly after.
Kenvil Sam, bowling for Carl Joseph Law Chambers ASCO, took 3/4 while Konard Adams took 2 for 42.
ASCO, who were missing a few of their experience players, were no match for the Radcliffe bowling and were bundled out for 99 in 27 overs. Their plight could have been much worse were it not for a well-played half century from the enigmatic Kelshun Dasilva. He made 58 with 3 fours and 5 sixes and was one of 3 wickets that fell for 1 run at the end of the innings. Offspinner Othneil Lewis 5/ 40 fully exploited the conditions with Lindon James 2/2 and Dyke Cato 2/34 also chipping in.
ASCO asked to follow on and keep a rampant Radcliffe at bay for 70 overs on a turning pitch, were only able to last 36.4 of those overs in being dismissed for 130. Darrel Sam got 36 as the veteran offspinner Dyke Cato (6/54) ripped through the heart of the ASCO batting with Richie Richards 3/28 also being part of the destruction. Set 30 for the outright win, Flow Radcliffe ended on 30 for 2.