Akeem Alvarez slammed a brilliant 100 of just 48 balls to lead Munroe Road to 209 for five against Defence Force in the UWI T20 competition at the Sir Frank Worrell ground in St. Augustine.
Batting first, Alvarez took charge and slammed the bowling to all parts of the ground. He struck eight fours and nine sixes and was ably assisted by Keiran Joseph with 47. The right hander struck four fours and two sixes and towards the end of the innings, Teshawn Castro made 29 of 14 balls with four sixes.
Defence Force reached 70/2 of nine overs when the rain came down and washed out the game. The Duckworth/Lewis par score at that point was 101—so Munroe Road won by 31 runs.
Tobago’s Club Crusoe took the honours in the second game, when they dominated Defence Force. Leron Lezama scored a wonderful unbeaten 74 to take the game away from the Army/Navy combination. He faced just 49 balls and skipper Navin Stewart joined in with a 20-ball 44, to take their team to 209/6 of 20 overs.
Defence Force in reply lost wickets at regular intervals and could not mount a meaningful challenge. They were restricted to 115 for eight - losing by 94 runs. Stewart completed a fine match by claiming 2/29. Defence Force was knocked out of the tournament, sending Club Crusoe and Munroe Road into the quarters. Last night the two faced each other in a battle to win the group.
Meanwhile, On Friday night Merry Boys finished atop Group B with a 22-run win over UWI CC thanks to a fine all round performance from national player Marlon Richards. The right hander scored 34 and together with Ranga Latchana 34 rallied Merryboys to 166 for seven in 20 overs. Richards then returned with the ball to snare 3/29, as UWI was restricted to 144/6 in their reply. Merryboys and Police joined Cane Farm and Central Sports in the quarter-finals of the tournament.