By Dean “The Sportsman” Greenaway
Grenada’s Derrol Redhead opened with 75 in support of Ragel Noel’s 90
Grenada got its BVI Cricket Association T20 season going on Sunday in Greenland, by using a 152-run partnership between Ragel Noel and Derrol Redhead, to flog the shorthanded V.I. Combined Renegades by 157 runs in the league opener for both teams.
With only one of the St. Thomas players on the team showing up and several BVI players working, the V.I. Combined Renegades decided to field after winning the toss and having only nine players.
Grenada batsmen took advantage with Man of the Match Noel starting his season with 90 runs off 50 balls and Redhead contributing a supporting 75 off 30 deliveries, en route to posting 267 for 5. Akim Hendrickson and Andel Walcott, contributed supporting knocks of 35 and 24 respectively. Kesley Roberts was the V.I. Combined Renegades top bowler with 3 for 10.
Openers Wayne Archer and St. Thomas’ Collin Joseph, gave the V.I. Combined Renegades a strong start with a 63-run partnership, before Archer was caught for 21 and Joseph later for 39. Then, the rest of the batting collapsed, as they could only muster 24 more runs for the loss of seven wickets and were out, 110 for 8 in 12.2 overs. Grenada bowler Noel, snatched 2 for 27.
Despite not getting to train because of players’ work schedules, Redhead said every team’s aim is to win their first game, but it’s important to have patience and discipline towards the game.
“We knew V.I. Renegades were playing with nine men so we knew we had the opportunity to score a lot of runs as there would be a lot of gaps available, so getting that first win was very important,” Redhead said. “It was all about putting runs on the board and we wanted a big total. They won the toss and asked us to bat so the main focus was to get 250+. We got 267, it was a winning total for us. We went out and defended it.”
V.I. Combined Renegades Captain Alvin Africa said that for the last couple seasons, they’ve been playing short due to work for some of the guys and today, some of their main players didn’t show up, but they still put up a fight. “We still played short with less than a bench and played with nine guys,” he noted. “We had Derrol Redhead to deal with, very destructive when he gets going and today, he did the same thing—he was actually destructive again—hard to contain him when he gets going. We tried our best but it was hard for us.”
Redhead, who had 100 in vs the V.I. Combined Renegades in the Peter Haycraft T10 tournament in November and was the top batsman with 287 runs, said getting 75 in the first game helps to build his confidence.
“For me it was just getting runs for my team,” he said. “It wasn’t about an individual achievement but getting my team to a defendable total, so my knock was to get my eyes open a bit and hopefully, I can continue throughout the tournament.”
