Barbados 180 for 6 (Edwards 45, Morris 42) tied with Combined Campuses and Colleges 180 for 5 (Bascombe 48, Wiggins 39)
One-over eliminator CCC 16 tied with Barbados 16 (Barbados win because they scored more boundaries in the game)
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Here is the result again: Barbados won the one-over eliminator after a tie against Combined Campuses and Colleges. Both teams were tied at the end of 20 overs and both were tied on 16 at the end of the eliminator as well. Barbados, however, clinched it because they had more boundaries in the entire contest.
The end was as confusing as it was thrilling. Barbados needed seven - six actually as they were ahead on the boundary count- from the last ball and Dwayne Smith pulled a short-of-length delivery towards the deep backward square-leg boundary where Romel Currency caught it. But to his horror, Currency stepped back and his foot touched the boundary rope. It was a six and Barbados had won.
It couldn't have been more dramatic. It couldn't have been more contrived. It definitely couldn't have been more heart-stopping for the losing team CCC. It couldn't have got more confusing for the spectators. And there couldn't have been a better advert for the competition.
Half-way through that eliminator, bowled by Gilford Moore, CCC were ahead. Moore kept it full and straight and Barbados needed 15 runs off the last three deliveries. Dwayne Smith pulled the fourth, a short ball, over fine leg and swiped the fifth through midwicket for a couple of runs. It came down to the last ball and Smith and Barbados prevailed with a little bit of luck.
CCC had batted first in the eliminator and their captain Floyd Riefer, who opened with Ryan Wiggins, hooked Kemar Roach for a six and smashed a four past mid off. He would have thought he had done the job for his team but was in for a major disappointment.
There were thrills even before the eliminator. It looked as though Barbados had all but sealed the win when the equation read: 42 from 17 balls. Wiggins, however, nearly pulled of a heist in the company of Reifer. Wiggins looted three sixes in four deliveries from Kevin Stoute - one flew over the straight boundary, another vanished over covers and the last disappeared over long on. Suddenly, the equation looked achievable and when Wiggins flayed a full toss from Roach over long off, it came down to nine off six balls.
Suliemann Benn starred in a terrific final over by bowling yorker after yorker - Wiggins managed only a single from three balls - and left CCC needing five from the final delivery. Benn then bowled a full toss and Reifer smashed it to deep midwicket where the fielder dived but parried the ball over the boundary. It was a tie and the eliminator fun began.
Before Wiggins and Reifer brought it down to the eliminator, CCC were actually sitting pretty at 76 for 0 in seven overs but lost the plot after opener Miles Bascombe threw his wicket following a breezy 48. Until then, he had kept it simple by lifting Smith over mid-off, pulling him for boundaries and playing a couple of delectable flicks over backward square leg. He then crashed left-arm spinner Ryan Hinds over long off but combusted soon, when he missed an attempted heave across the line against Hinds and was bowled. The middle order collapsed and it looked as though the chase had derailed before the Wiggins show began.
What CCC missed in the middle overs was someone like Barbados' Carlos Morris who ensured that the start provided by opener Kirk Edwards was not wasted. Three wickets had fallen in 13 deliveries, and Barbados had slipped to 131 for 6 in 16.2, when Morris counterattacked. He swung Ryan Austin over long off, flicked Moore over the square-leg boundary and mowed him to cow corner. He finished the innings with a six over long on in the last over. At that point it appeared as though Barbados would stroll to win but everyone was in for a bit of a shock.
