Clarke Road United notched their third consecutive outright win of the 2023 Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) National League Premiership I season, with an eight-wicket triumph over Queen’s Park Cricket Club II at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain on Sunday.
Set a modest 116 runs for victory on the final day, Clarke Road, resuming on three without loss, made light work of their opponents and cruised to 122/2 after 42.4 overs.
Openers Yannick Ottley (56) and Vikash Mohan (17) pushed the score to 44 before the latter was caught by Chadeon Raymond off Matthew Patrick. Ottley buckled down with new batsman Nicholas Sookdeosingh, who hit the winning runs in his unbeaten knock of 43.
One ball before Sookdeosingh sealed Clarke’s Road’s win, Ottley was run out by Ravi Kadoo.
The result kept the Penal side atop the standings as the only team with three victories thus far, after four rounds of competition.
Batting first on day one on Friday, QPCC II closed on 225/8 and were bowled out for 240 (69 overs) on the morning of the second day. The Parkites were steered by Jeremy Araujo’s unbeaten 97 and Mikkel Govia’s 69.
Ottley (3/41) was the pick of Clarke Road’s bowlers while Joshua James (2/17), Kerwyn Sirju (2/44) and Ahkeel Mollon (2/45) were also among the wickets.
Clarke Road’s response with the bat on Saturday saw them dismissed for 168, 72 runs short of the target, led by Ottley’s (51) first half century of the contest. Philton Williams bagged 5/32 and Eric Garcia 2/14.
QPCC II returned to the middle and were expected to pile on a huge lead but were destroyed for just 46 runs, owing to Mohan’s sensational 7/14 from eight overs. The capitulation opened the door for Clarke Road who gleefully accepted.
The south team has not won the league in over a decade and club president Baldath Mahabir is pleased with their progress so far.
“We’re happy to be in front. It’s a real positive for the team’s on-field leadership, so I want to say congratulations to them and to keep up the spirit and work ethic they have set to get where they are now.
“There’s no secret. We’ve practised for 20 weeks before the season started. Every week we did, under our coaching and management team at the time: Mukesh Persad, Dinesh Mahabir and Yannick Ottley.
"We put in the hard yards before the season even started. What I’m seeing here today is a manifestation of the work the boys did before,” he said.
Clarke Road face Preysal Sports Club at home in round five on Saturday.
In other matches on Sunday, defending league champions PowerGen sealed an innings and 52-run triumph over Preysal at their Syne Village, Penal, base.
Heading into day three, Preysal were facing a 172-run deficit against Powergen after being bowled out for 248 and seeing their opponents stack 420 in their first innings. Jason Mohammed had smashed 132, Akeil Cooper 95 and Evin Lewis 71.
Preysal were sent back in to bat on Sunday and were whittled away for 120 runs, despite a 60-run knock from middle-order batsman Adrian Cooper.
Ansil Bhagan (5/2
