UWI Blackbirds Juniors book place in CCL U16 final

UWI Blackbirds Juniors defeated Empire Junior in the semi-finals of the Community Cricket League (CCL) Under-16 tournament when the match was played yesterday at the UWI Cave Hill Campus.

Batting first, UWI seemingly came up short when they only posted a 135 runs before they were bowled out by the Empire Juniors.

Empire Dre Springer captured four wickets for 20 runs with his fast bowling and Nathan Sealy picked up 4/16 after UWI was creeping along on 45/2 after 15 overs and then were 60/5 after 20 overs in the 40 over match.

In reply, it looked as though Empire would gallop to an easy victory as they blazed their way to 45/1 after a mere five overs.

But after reaching 50 in the sixth over everything started to crumble.

UWI introduced spin and Empire slumped to 64/4 after 10 overs and then 68/6.

By the end of the 13th over Empire was fighting to stay alive on 82/6 while UWI Blackbird Junior who initially thought they have come up short on the runs were buzzing in the field as they sensed victory just around the corner.

Empire had plenty overs to reach the target but the batsmen kept on falling and they continued to slide with wickets falling at regular intervals.

A mere 10 runs later and two more wickets were down 92/8 but the Empire captain was still in the middle Sealy but running out of partners.

Eventually UWI booked their place in the final slated for next weekend with the final wicket falling and Empire still needing 34 runs for victory off 88 balls. (CG)