BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A crisp maiden List A hundred from Paul Palmer failed to ignite Combined Campuses & Colleges Marooners and Canada rode a strong all-round performance from Harsh Thaker to a 51-run victory in the Colonial Medical Insurance Super50 Cup on Monday.

Palmer struck 12 boundaries in the top score of 105 from 123 balls and shared a century, fourth wicket stand with compatriot Romaine Morris, as the Marooners failed to successfully chase 253 to win the final Group A match at the Conaree Cricket Centre.

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Palmer’s hundred was the 11th in the group out of a total 17 scored in the tournament up to the time of writing – a testimony to the hard work of the ground staff at this venue and Warner Park, where the pitches have been in prime condition for the format.

The former Jamaica Scorpions captain shared 103 for the fourth wicket with Morris, whose 58 from 59 balls included six fours and one six, but there was little stability from the rest of the batting with Gian Benjamin’s 10 being the next highest.

Thaker, bowling his uncomplicated off-spin, returned the miserly figures of 3-29 from his allotted 10 overs to make him a shoo-in for the Player of the Match award, after scoring a half-century when the Canadians batted.

New-ball bowler Kaleem Sana-ur-Rehman was the most successful bowler, taking 4-24 from 8.2 overs, and fellow slow bowler Shahid Ahmadzai supported with 3-37 from eight overs to propel Canada to their second win in the tournament and send the Marooners, last year’s champions, to their sixth defeat.

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Choosing bat, Canada were 112 for three before they stumbled to 149 for seven in the 38th over and looked in danger of falling for a sub-par total.

But Thaker and Sana, watched by a small crowd that included Cricket Canada president Ranhit Saini, frustrated the Marooners with 92 for the eighth wicket to push their side to a respectable 252 all out in their allocation of 50 overs.

Thaker hit a run-a-ball, unbeaten 68 that included six fours and two sixes and Sana made a run-a-ball 37.

Off-spinner Larry Joseph ended with 3-38 from his 10 overs, pacer Jarlarnie Seales took 3-62 from his 10 overs and left-arm spinner Kavesh Kantasingh bagged two wickets.

Neither team qualified for the semi-finals, which will start at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday at the Queen’s Park Oval in the Trinidad & Tobago capital of Port of Spain.

Barbados Pride and Leeward Islands Hurricanes qualified from the group for the semis, which along with the final, starting at the same time on Sunday at the same venue, will be televised “live” on ESPN Caribbean in the West Indies.

Source: CWI Media

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