Jamaica Scorpions are champions of the 2022 CG Insurance Super50 after a three-wicket victory over Trinidad and Tobago Red Force in the final at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium in Antigua on Saturday.
Accordingly, Red Force captain Pooran said ineffective batting was the reason for the three-wicket loss against the new champions Jamaica Scorpions in the final.
The Red Force, who scored 312 in the semi-final against Barbados last Wednesday, could only manage 217 for all out in 47 overs on Saturday at the same venue.
“Today wasn’t our day with the bat and in the end there, we saw we were 50 runs short. We didn’t assess properly. The batsmen fought but we kept losing wickets at crucial times and every time we got a partnership we lost wickets.”
“We saw Yannic Cariah there in the end, he and Akeal (Hosein) putting on a partnership but we kept finding ways to get out which obviously hurt us in the end.”
The Red Force was successful at the beginning of the Scorpions innings, but then Chadwick Walton scored 80 runs in 94 balls and Andre McCarthy scored 55 runs in 89 balls to build a partnership of 126 runs for the second wicket and took the Scorpions to the path of victory.
But despite seamer Terence Hinds (2-31) and left-arm spinner Khari Pierre (2-42) coming through the middle to drag the Reds back into the game, the small target worked against them.
“The guys obviously fought. Two hundred and eighteen is obviously difficult on that track to defend and I think the guys fought extremely hard – all the bowlers.”
“I’m really proud of the guys. They stuck in there but again, we batted poorly, and obviously, we paid the price. There’s not much we could’ve done differently [with the ball]. If a couple decisions had gone our way early, maybe.”
“We tried to get early wickets but it just didn’t happen for us. We got Brandon (King) early but I thought Walton and McCarthy played well. They didn’t give us a chance early and we lost the game there.”
Pooran was the top run-scorer for Trinidad and Tobago in the Regional Super 50 Cup and the second-highest run-scorer in the entire tournament. He finished with 342 runs at an average of 114.00, with Kjorn Otley (297) and Darren Bravo (240) also finishing in the top three run-scorers.
Also, Gabriel took 15 wickets, Yannick Cariah took 12 wickets and Akeal Hosein took 10 wickets. Pooran further said:
“I thought we brought our A-game in the semi-final … but in the final, we definitely didn’t show up. We didn’t show up with the bat. It’s unfortunate and again we paid the price.”
“In saying that, the guys played well throughout the tournament. We deserve to be in the final but someone has to win and someone has to lose in a final and unfortunately we’re the ones that lost.”