Manchester, STETHS set for rural schoolboy T20 final

ST ELIZABETH Technical High School (STETHS) and Manchester High School are set for their second battle in rural schoolboy cricket this season after the two enjoyed dominant victories in the ISSA First Global Bank Rural T20 semifinals yesterday.

STETHS enjoyed a 10-wicket victory over May Day High School at STETHS, while Manchester outlasted Tacky High by 31 runs at Manchester.

Manchester and STETHS will be meeting just weeks after the two endured a tough three days against each other in the GK Insurance under-19 semifinal, where the former enjoyed a hard-fought win.

Over at STETHS, the eventual winners were put in the field against a confident May Day, who were beaten finalists in the under-19 competition last week.

However, Deshawn James made the top order think better of the decision, reducing them to nine for two, in the first three overs.

James, who ended with figures of 2-13, Chadwick Hewitt caught at slip without scoring before getting Javed Williams caught behind for eight.

May Day captain, Reon Edwards, 49, and Christopher Lewis, 34, then tried to repair the innings, taking their team to 94-2 before the latter went trapped lbw off the bowling of Tyreek Bryan.

Bryan went on to remove Sanjay Martin, four, and Mark Barrett for nought, ripping the heart out of the May Day middle order to end with figures of 3-12 from his four overs.

No other batsman put up any real resistance, with May Day ending 124-8.

STETHS then made light work of the run chase, thanks to Bryan’s 80 not out. Brown, who also had good figures of 1-28 from his four overs, played the perfect foil to end unbeaten on 30 from 35 deliveries.

Manchester, on the other hand, started their game against Tacky shakily but recovered to post a more-than-competitive 191-9.

Their innings did not begin well, losing their first two wickets for just 10 runs inside the first two overs.

However, by the 14th over, Manchester were back in the game, having recovered to 115-4.

When Tacky went to bat, they seemed very interested in overhauling 191 and, interestingly, were well poised to do so at 112 for two in the 13th over.

Some tight bowling from Manchester though meant they would only add 17 runs in the next 18 deliveries, stalling the innings.

At 138 for four in the 17th, needing 54 runs from 18 deliveries, the game was, in effect, over.

In fact, getting to 160 was a job well done, though losing four wickets in the process did point to a target that was too big to overcome.