cricket with balls

ESPN have been showing the T20 Caribbean tournament.  And I haven’t been so entertained by a cricket tournament since the ICL.

I’ve been watching so much of it, late at night, just coming in and out of it, not watching entire games.  I loves it.

The final was on the other night, I taped it, but when I looked at ESPN had taped some random football match instead.

But luckily for me, ESPN replay every sporting event hundreds of times, so I caught the second innings of the final after Barbados made 135.

The second innings started brilliantly.

First ball Dwayne Smith ran past a ball I assume he would usually stop even if he was on sedatives.

Second ball Chattergoon forget to get back into his crease when a ball was hit straight to a fielder, and could have been run out.

Third ball was a wide.

This is just the sort of madness I’ve noticed in this tournament.  There is brillainace as well, but even that seems very close to madness.

Later on Sulieman Benn was hit when bowling by Sarwan.  It could have happened in any game, I assume most batsmen have tried to hit Benn, but Sarwan actually smacked him in the shoulder, the ball rebounded in the air and almost cleared the 30 metre circle.

In another game I saw Carlos Morris, the Barbados’ keeper, bat without a helmet to a quick.  Apparently he always does.  He was caught on the long on boundary for a golden duck, the ball was a bouncer.  Even the catch wasn’t ordinary, a Voges/Oram boundary rope special.

If you don’t believe me that this was an awesome tournament, Rawl Lewis played in it.  I rest my case.

The games were just filled with entertainment, like a fielder trying to save a ball but instead smacking it into his face and a game where 4 catches were dropped in 5 overs.

The final certainly lived up to the rest of the tournament.

Guyana made an absolute ass of the chase.  Benn and Smith were very good with the ball, but Guyana really helped by gifting wickets all the time.

Eventually Guyana needed 26 runs from 11 balls with 1 wicket in hand.

And that is when the Foo blew in.

Jonathan Foo smacked a huge six over mid off.

Then got dropped at deep mid wicket, had it been taken, Barbados win everything, instead some crazy fucker didn’t just drop it, but almost punched it for another six.

The next over Foo, who looked about 12, smacked two fours to start the over, and then pretty much let the number 11 finish it all off.

Guyana needed two off two, and the wonderfully named Bishoo squirted one to cover, there was probably only one there, but Sulieman Benn fumbled it, and then booted it away, and they took two.

Bishoo and Foo had done it.

Foo finishing with 42 off 17.

Next season I will do anything I can to not to miss one of these games.

By the power of Foo, I swear.