A superb innings of 117 not out by talented batsman Kirstan Kallicharan powered North to an exciting three-wicket victory over South in the Vasha Foods Under-19 North/South Classic at the National Cricket Centre (NCC) in Balmain, Couva, on Monday night.
The tall-scoring East Zone batsman slammed 14 fours and two maximums off just 103 balls to lead North to 290/7 in 48.2 overs in pursuit of South’s 289/7 in their allotted 50 overs after they won the toss and elected to take first strike.
Right-handed Kallicharan came to the crease with his team in peril on 87/5 after losing four wickets in quick succession for the addition of only five runs as Keagan Simmons (14), Amir Jangoo (19), Brandon Maharaj (0) and Saeed Mohammed (0) were all dismissed cheaply.
At that stage South would have fancied their chances of making light work of the opposition as wily spinner Varendra Jagrup grabbed two wickets with assistance from Bryan Boodram and Jonathan Williams who started the slide with one apiece.
But Kallicharan found a useful partner in Joshua De Silva who made a well-played 37 with four fours.
The pair put on 89 for the sixth wicket which took the score to 176/6 in 38 overs before De Silva was unfortunately run out. But his dismissal let in Renaldo Lezama, who teamed up with Kallicharan to put on a match-winning partnership of 105 runs and place North on the brink of victory before he was also unfortunately run out for 36.
Earlier South mounted a formidable target for North through the effort of right-handed opener Cephas Cooper who struck 14 fours and a huge six in an undefeated knock of 114.
Cooper carried his bat in a remarkable innings during which he faced 125 balls and shared important partnerships with fellow opener Dejourn Charles (47). The pair’s opening partnership was 97 in 21.2 overs.
The hard-hitting batsman also combined with Jeron Maniram to post 55 for the fifth wicket; and 31 with Clevon Kalawan, with both being dismissed for an identical score of 27 as the overs counted down. What was impressive about Cooper’s and Kallicharan’s innings is that they are both just 15 years old.
It was the second straight victory by the North team in the classic series, having defeated South last week in the Under-17 clash, which put them in striking distance of a coveted Vasha hat-trick with their Under-15s meeting South tomorrow at the NCC in Balmain starting at 2.30 pm.