North Field, National Sports Centre (Hamilton Parish won toss): Hamilton Parish Hurricanes (5pts) beat Sandys Spartans (0) by seven wickets

West Indies star Carlos Brathwaite produced a batting display for the ages to power Hamilton Parish Hurricanes to a thumping victory in the Friday curtain-raiser.

From the moment the 6ft 5in bruiser cleared the ropes against off spinner Sharye Tavares, Sandys Spartans’ chances diminished. He would hit ten more sixes in his individual score of 81 not out, as he and Jordan DeSilva (11 not out) finished the chase inside 14 overs with a stand of 84 for the fourth wicket.

“I felt like I needed to take a bit of responsibility at the back end and be a little more proactive today,” said Brathwaite, who more than atoned for his early dismissal in the defeat by Smith’s Sixers on Wednesday.

“I had a match-up against the off spinner [Tavares] and when I hit a six off the first ball, that gave me impetus.

“Sometimes with a low total you can allow that to dictate the intent and be able to pick out the bad balls to hit.

“There was a period where they were doing quite well with the ball and we were able to rotate the strike until the time came where we were able to explode.”

Needing little more than a run-a-ball to reach the required target, Hamilton Parish eased out of the gate, with Terryn Fray (nine) and Alex Dore (15) putting on 27 for the first wicket.

A mini-collapse was triggered when Fray was caught by Kamau Leverock off Delray Rawlins, with Dore and Charles Trott soon back in the pavilion.

In at No 5, Brathwaite, whose legendary status was secured by the four successive sixes off England’s Ben Stokes to win the T20 World Cup in 2016, set about rectifying matters.

It was not long before he set North Field alight, showing his class against a bowling attack lacking true venom.

Brathwaite took a particular liking to the slow bowling of Tavares, whom he hit for three sixes in two overs, and Seth Campbell, whose medium pace he dispatched over the boundary twice on his way to a rapid half-century.

Rawlins was the pick of Sandys bowlers with one for six from three overs of slow left-arm, while Leverock and Tavares each had a single wicket, for 29 and 33 runs respectively.

Runs had earlier proved hard to come by for Sandys after they were sent in to bat on a wicket dampened by overnight rain. Opening batters Q’Shai Darrell and Alje Richardson were unable to take effective use of the first powerplay, crawling to just ten after 2.2 overs, when Derrick Brangman claimed the scalp of Darrell for nine.

Leverock lasted just 12 balls before he was dismissed for 15 in unfortunate circumstances at the non-striker’s end, a drive by Richardson ricocheting on to the stumps off the leg of bowler Abdul Salaam and catching the Spartans captain out of his ground.

Richardson soon perished for 19 as he became Brangman’s second wicket, leaving Sandys in difficulty at 57 for three.

Failing to adequately recover from the early-order failures and raise the scoring level, Sandys finished their allotted 20 overs with a sub-par score of 123 for eight.

DeSilva ended with best bowling figures for the Hurricanes, taking two for 21, while Brangman’s two wickets cost 25 runs. Michael Agard took one wicket from four miserly overs, the prized scalp of Shamarh Brooks for 23.

Pushed down the order, Tavares responded well with 28, while Rawlins (12) was the only other batter in double figures.

The result allowed Hurricanes the opportunity to control their own destiny as they try for a top-three position in their final round-robin match against Pembroke Panthers tomorrow.

“Today we cleaned up a bit of the mistakes that we made in the first game,” said Fray, the winning captain. “We played a really good first game, even though [Smith’s Sixers] got off a little bit and today we came back and played well again.

“We didn’t get the best start that we thought we could have, but we were patient and ran well between the wickets and put the bad balls away.

“We knew the value of partnerships and we were able to get some of the problems that we had sorted out, which I believe should bode well for the rest of the tournament.”

Sandys captain Leverock again refused to speak with the media after the game, but in the wake of such a heavy loss, the tournament’s only winless team will need something special against Smith’s Sixers — while getting help elsewhere — to get into the top three and reach the qualifying match.

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