Bermuda Under 19s 84

Southampton Rangers 86-1Janeiro Tucker blasted his way into top form with the bat to propel Southampton Rangers to a six-wicket triumph over a spirited Bermuda Under-19 national team in the final of the Kenneth (Mickey) Thompson Super Sevens Tournament at Southampton Oval yesterday.

Tucker made his opponents pay dearly after he was put down behind in the first over off the bowling of Chris Douglas, smashing an unbeaten 47, containing six sixes and a four, as Rangers romped to victory with wickets in hand and two balls to spare.

The Somerset Cup Match skipper featured in a whirlwind 71-run opening stand with cousin Kwame Tucker (25) that carried the tournament hosts to the brink of victory.

But after Rangers lost Kwame Tucker on the last ball of the fourth over, incoming bat Curtis Jackson (12 not out) and the prolific Janeiro Tucker polished off the required runs for victory with the former collecting the winning single off a thick edge down to the third man region.

Tucker was caught stranded outside of his crease when a Janeiro Tucker ondrive was deflected onto the stumps off the outstretched hand of bowler Kiearan Trott after clubbing four fours and a six.

Earlier Bermuda’s Under-19s were sent into bat on a good batting strip and got off to a flyer as openers Malachi Jones (55) and Douglas (27) belted 17 runs off of veteran seamer Ryan Belboda in the first over.

Slow bowler Jackson and seamer Dornielle Farrell were also put to the sword as the Under-19s raced to a half-century off 18 balls, and threatened to run away with the match.

But Rangers finally made the breakthrough when Douglas was run out on a Traddie Simpson misfield at long off attempting a second run that was never on.

Things then quickly deteriorated for the Island’s youngsters as left arm fast bowler Simpson claimed the scalps of Jordan DeSilva (2), Jones and Dennico Hollis (0) in the space of five balls to force the opposition on the back foot.

DeSilva was caught by Belboda who took an exceptional yet disputed one-handed catch on the long off boundary before Simpson sent Jones’ off-stump cartwheeling as he tried in vain to accelerate the run rate towards the end of the innings.

Jones, who timed the ball beautifully on both sides of the wicket, banged seven sixes and two fours during his scintillating knock.

Simpson then claimed his third wicket of the over when he trapped Hollis in front of the stumps to place himself - for the second time within a 24-hour period - on a hat-trick. The Jamaican-born quickie, however, was denied as Pierre Smith took a single off the bowler’s final delivery to bring his team’s innings to a close.

Simpson finished with tournament best figures of three for two off his allotted over.

The Tucker cousins got Rangers off to a pulsating start in reply, taking 24 runs off the first over before dishing out further punishment on their opponents’ varied attack and storming to a comfortable victory in front of the home crowd.

Janeiro Tucker was the tournament’s highest run-getter with 267 runs overall.

Tucker was dismissed only once in five innings and his swashbuckling 81 (12 sixes and a four) against Devonshire Recreation Club in the semi-final was the highest individual score in the history of the tournament.

“Once I got going I always thought I could carry on. I felt pretty good at the wicket and was able to hit the ball cleanly today,” he said.

Tucker’s team-mate Simpson claimed the most wickets (five) over the two-day tournament with some aggressive bowling, while Devonshire’s Phillip Smith held the most catches (two).

Rangers’ massive 125 runs without loss against Devonshire in the semi -final also surpassed the previous best (104) team total set by Leg Trappers against them on Saturday in the group stage of the competition that saw Willow Cuts withdraw at the 11th hour.

Last-minute replacement Bermuda Under-19s defeated Leg Trappers by seven wickets in the other semi-final to give themselves a shot at the title.

Yet despite coming up short, Bermuda assistant youth coach Andre Manders thought his youngsters acquitted themselves well over the weekend.

“Even though we scored 84 runs I still thought we had a good chance with the bowlers that we have,” he said. “A few missed chances here and there and the form that Janeiro (Tucker) was in may have cost us the game in the end.

“But other than that we are happy with the way we performed throughout the tournament and hopefully the guys will continue to improve as we prepare for this summer’s Under-19 Americas Championship in Toronto.”

In the third-place play-off, Devonshire defeated Leg Trappers by 29 runs after posting 118 runs in their allotted overs.