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Superstars make winning start to Stanford tournament

26/10/2008

The Stanford Superstars have made a winning start to the Twenty20 competition in Antigua after beating Trinidad and Tobago by 22 runs.

The Superstars were without star batsmen Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul but still had enough fire power to overhaul Trinidad and Tobago.

Trinidad and Tobago captain Darren Ganga won the toss and chose to field on the un-used pitch thinking that it might be better to chase.

To begin with his tactics seemed to be working. The slow nature of the pitch was reflected in the scoring.

Fast bowler Ravi Rampaul and spinner Samuel Badree worked well in tandem and restricted the Superstars to 34-2 but that only brought Sylvester Joseph to the crease and he punished Trinidad and Tobago.

Joseph scored 45 runs off just 31 balls and helped his side score 96 runs off the final ten overs to reach a score of 146-5.

That looked to be a competitive total and it proved too high for Trinidad and Tobago. Pacemen Jerome Taylor, Daren Powell and Sulieman Benn accounted for five of the Trinidad and Tobago wickets.

Lendl Simmons was out first ball to Taylor before the island side briefly rallied. William Perkins hit 16 runs off as many balls before Benn yorked him.

Justin Guillen and all-rounder Navin Stewart shared a partnership of 42 but could not get their side past the Superstars' total.

Stewart fell for 26 with the score on 98-4 and when Gullien was dismissed two runs later the Superstars cruised to victory.

Trinidad and Tobago will face Middlesex on Monday while the Superstars' next match is also against the English champions on Thursday.