Days Mountain top SDC T20 in St Mary

Western Bureau:

New champions will be crowned in this year's Social Development Commission (SDC) Twenty20 Community Cricket competition after defending champions Gayle Cricket Club failed to qualify for the all-island play-off after the parish round ended at the weekend.

Gayle CC who won the competition when it was last staged in 2019, were beaten in last week's semi-finals but secured a third-place finish in St Mary's parish round after a commanding 10-wicket win over Highgate last Saturday.

In the final played at Boscobel Oval, Days Mountain needed a super over to take the St Mary championship by five runs over Boscobel. Both teams got over 250 runs off their 20 overs. Batting first Boscobel posted a mammoth 257 for the loss of four wickets with top scorer Alwayne Williams smashing 169 runs. In reply to what seemed an almost impossible task, Dwayne Hamilton (92) and Romeo McDonald (85) brought the scores level for the loss of six wickets. Horace Whitehorn, with two wickets for 24 runs, made the most impact with the ball for Boscobel.

The champions posted 11-0 in the super over and held their nerves to restrict the hosts to six for one in their over.

Over in St Elizabeth, Junction Ridge Redbank defeated arch-rivals Junction Ballards Valley by 40 runs to claim the parish's bragging rights and a spot in all-island play-offs. Man-of-the-Match Rowan Banton was top scorer for the Redbank with 33. He also claimed two wickets for 22 runs.

A fine all-around performance by West Indies star Andre Russell propelled Old Harbour Cricket Club to a five-run win over Hartland Crocodiles in the St Catherine final at Chedwin Park. Russell top-scored for Old Harbour with 47 and was the pick of the bowlers with three for 14. Carlos Brown scored 58 for Hartland.