Simmons (102*) leads Red Force to victory over Volcanoes

Lendl Simmons made his sixth List A century as Trinidad and Tobago Red Force notched their second win of the 2021 CG Insurance Super50 Cup on Saturday night at the Coolidge Cricket Ground.

After bowling out the Windward Islands Volcanoes for 227, Red Force appeared to be full control at 159-2 in the 30th over after Simmons made an entertaining 102 off 114 balls.

He hit seven fours and five sixes to take the CG Insurance Man-of-the-Match award as Red Force scored 228-6 off 45.3 overs – to win by four wickets with 27 balls to spare.

Simmons reached the milestone of 4,000 List A runs during his innings, but fell via the run-out route thanks to some excellent work from substitute Roland Cato. His dismissal triggered a slide which saw four Red Force wickets fall for 22 runs off 40 balls, to leave Red Force on 181-5 the 37th over.

Simmons shared an 81-run opening stand with Evin Lewis (37) and a 78-run second-wicket stand with Nicholas Pooran (17). Captain Kieron Pollard then hit 31 off 35 balls with three huge sixes, but fell close to the end when he was well caught by Cato off left-arm spinner Larry Edward (2-48).

“In the first game I didn’t get a score, so coming into this game I wanted to do something special for the team. It feels good to get a hundred, but I would have liked to see it home,” Simmons said.
“We are playing a good brand of cricket and we now have two wins in our two matches so we want to continue the winning ways.”

All-rounder Kerron Cottoy had earlier top-scored with 72 from 75 balls while captain Sunil Ambris stroked 66 from 77 balls to help Volcanoes rally.

Off-spinner Jason Mohammed (3-50) and fast bowler Anderson Phillip (3-63) made inroads in the Volcanoes innings, while left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein opened the bowling and ended with 2-25. (Sportsmax)