Nervous wait for Old Harbour after second defeat in SDC T20

The defeat means Old Harbour, Eastwood Park Gardens and White River all finished their round-of-16 Group A campaign on three points each behind unbeaten group winner Johnson Mountain with maximum nine points.

Host team Johnson Mountain (185-4) sealed top spot to secure a quarter-final berth, following a narrow four-run win over St Ann’s White River (181-6) in the day’s feature game at the same venue.

Net-run-rate will now decide which team from the group will join Johnson Mountain into the last eight. This is to be determined by the organisers as per the rule and is calculated by the total number of runs scored divided by the amount of balls faced, minus the total number of runs scored against, divided by total number of balls bowled.

Old Harbour found themselves in a peculiar predicament after they arrived at the venue an hour after the scheduled 10:00 am start time for the match, as their team bus developed mechanical problems along Spanish Town Road in the city of Kingston en route to the match venue. 

This saw them automatically forfeiting the toss, while being deducted 10 overs as per competition rules. 

Sent to bat, Old Harbour blazed a rapid 137 for the loss of three wickets from the allotted 10 overs. Ronville Brown (49), Dempsey Salmon (35) and Devoy Smith (34) all batted well under the circumstances, while Oniel Wright bagged two for 24 bowling for Eastwood Park Gardens.

Set 138 to win from their full quota of 20 overs, Eastwood Park responded with 140 for three with 22 balls remaining.

Victory for the Kingston and St Andrew side was set-up by half centuries from Javel Glen (58) and Kymani Wilson, who made 56.

Based on Old Harbour News’ calculation, Old Harbour – with a net-run-rate of 0.064 should advance just ahead of White River (0.043) and Eastwood Park Gardens (-0.212).