Super Dwayne Smith again scores 500 runs in BCA T20 Cup as YMPC, Gladiola set for Final
Bridgetown, Barbados, May 28 – (www.barbadoscricket.org) – All hail Dwayne Romel Smith!
The veteran all-rounder fittingly played a key role with both bat and ball as Bayview Hospital YMPC beat Wildey in a sensational super over finish at Desmond Haynes Oval to advance to the Final of the BCA Elite/Division 1 Twenty20 Championship for the first time.
And Smith, the 40-year-old former Barbados and West Indies player, also achieved another very special feat.
He is now the only batsman to twice score 500 runs in a season in the 15-year Tournament – and mind you, consecutively – after hitting an unbeaten half-century.
Smith scrambled two runs off the last ball of the innings to tie the scores with YMPC chasing 148 for victory, then fell off the first ball of the super over in which YMPC made 14 for one, and dramatically climaxed by grabbing wickets off the first two balls without conceding a run.
The Beckles Road team will oppose the 2020 champions Barbados Workers Union Gladiola, who defeated ESA Field Pickwick by six wickets with three balls remaining in the other semi-final at Bayfield.
The showdown is slated for June 11 at Weymouth.
At Desmond Haynes Oval: Dwayne Smith showed why he remains a feared white-ball star in local competition.
With YMPC hunting 148 to win and requiring six runs off the final over from medium-pacer Rey Mattthews with six wickets in hand – Smith, who faced the last ball when three runs were needed – scrambled two in partnership with Gadson Bowens to tie the scores.
Smith’s unbeaten 63 off 57 balls included four fours and two sixes and took his aggregate to 505 (Ave: 72.14) including one hundred and five half-centuries.
Last season, in nine matches Smith amassed 514 runs (Ave: 73.42) including a record three centuries (he now has a record six tons all told). He remains the only batsman to score 500 runs in a season after the Tournament started in 2008.
Today, as fortunes fluctuated, Smith was outscored by the experienced Raymond Kellman in an opening partnership of 46 off 3.5 overs before Kellman fell to left-arm spinner Pius Emilien for 30 off 14 balls including four fours and two sixes.
Jadan Jones contributed 26 off 10 balls with two fours and two sixes in a fourth wicket stand of 29 off 13 balls which kept YMPC in the game.
In the last over, Matthews, the brother of Barbados and West Indies Women’s captain, Hayley Matthews, who was in attendance, dismissed Barbados Pride fast bowler Ramon Simmonds (two) and Zavia Trotman (one) off the first and fourth balls.
Trying to swat a short delivery, Simmonds was caught at short midwicket by Craig St. Hill, the Wildey captain.
Trotman got a single to long-on off the second ball, followed by another single to Smith.
Then Trotman, driving inside out, was well caught on the cover boundary by Jayden Roberts.
Bowens picked up a single after Jerome Jones at mid-off missed a low chance for a catch.
The last ball was a full-pitch, which Smith drove back to the bowler and from a ricochet it went to long-off for two runs to be attained.
Earlier, Wildey scored 147 for four off 20 overs after winning the toss.
Opener Demetrius Richards hit the top-score of 56 off 49 balls including six fours and one six before he was fourth out off medium-pacer Dwayne Smith with the score 102 in the 17th over.
Left-hander Richards put on 67 in nine overs for the second wicket with Shane Parris, who made 30 off 29 balls including three boundaries.
Barbados Under-19 team players, Roberts (27 not out off 13 balls with four boundaries) and left-hander Nimar Bolden (21 not out off 17 balls) beefed up the innings.
Captain and off-spinning all-rounder, Kemar Jabarry Smith, the brother of Dwayne, took two for 21 off four overs.
Now to the drama of the super over battle!
Off the first ball, Dwayne Smith was caught on the midwicket boundary by Jaden Leacock off left-arm fast bowler, Jerome Jones.
Jaden Jones (5 not out) and Raymond Kellman (7 not out) helped the score to 14 for one.
Magic man Dwayne Smith then promptly sent down a full toss on leg stump, which Richards lifted to deep midwicket for Kellman to move to his right and pluck the ball out of the air one-handed, leading to an invasion on the field by excited YMPC supporters. The action has been featured in a widely circulated video.
The next ball was pitched on middle stump and Jerome Jones, playing across, was leg before wicket.
At Bayfield: Pickwick were bowled out for 153 off 20 overs after they were sent in.
West Indies One-Day International captain Shai Hope top-scored with 56 off 36 balls including five fours and three sixes at No. 3.
He featured in a third wicket partnership of 45 in 5.3 overs with his older brother and captain Kyle Hope, who made 18.
Antonio Morris scored 28 off 19 balls at No. 5.
Pickwick lost their last eight wickets for 60 runs in 7.4 overs.
Off-spinner Devon Phillips, brought on as the last of seven bowlers, took four for 30 off four overs including the wicket of Shai Hope, well stumped by Rivaldo Clarke to be fourth out with the score 107 in the 14th over.
Giovonte Depeiza, leading the side in the absence of Ashley Nurse, who is overseas, took two for 21 with his left-arm spin, and pace bowling all-rounder Kemar Harte, two for 26 – both off four overs.
The diminutive Clarke and Giovonte Depeiza, both of whom played for West Indies Under-19s in the last ICC Youth World in the Caribbean two seasons ago, also produced vital knocks.
Clarke made 50 not out off 32 balls with five fours and Depeiza 35 off 32 deliveries including one four and one six.
The pair added 41 off 5.3 overs for the third wicket.
Former Barbados left-hander Martin Nurse, in his first match this season, scored 39 off 30 balls with six fours at the top of the order.
Morris took two for 35 off four overs.