Guyanese Travis Blyden leads from the front

May 10, 2017 Sports, http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....eads-from-the-front/

UWI take first TTCB North/East 50-over League title

UWI’s Player/Coach and Captain, 27-year-old Guyanese Travis Blyden, led from the front in his first season for the St Augustine based team after playing for the past five years in T&T for Evergreen as he led UWI to its first Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board’s (TTCB) North/East 50-over title.
In a steaming hot conditions last Sunday on a good batting track UWI continued their dominance in the TTCB’s East 50-over League by defeating Fulham by six wickets at the Sir Frank Worrell Memorial Ground to capture the Championship.
Fulham won the toss and elected to bat and ‘the scholars’ overpowered Fulham to send them packing for 190 in 35 overs after slipping from an impressive 80-run opening stand in the first 15 overs between Steffan Campo (49) and Stephen Sooklal ( 34). But after that only Rondel Jones (29) offered resistance.
Blyden held two jaw-dropping catches that removed two of Fulham’s most dangerous batsmen before Russel Paul, bowling with plenty of control, took 5-26 in a frugal 10-over spell and got support from Shaun Sookdial (3-39) as the home team displayed impeccable fielding and catching.
Watched by a large partisan crowd, UWI replied with 191/4 in 29 overs on a ground which replaced the Brian Lara Stadium as a warm-up venue for the 2007 World Cup. Opener Jasbour Findlay led the way by scoring his first century of the season, a magnificent unbeaten 105. Christanja Carey weighted in with an attractive 43.
Stephen Sooklal (2-33), Steffan Campo (1-33) and Anderson Nesbitt (1-33) were the wicket takers for Fulham in a losing cause as UWI lost just one of their seven matches for the season on their road to the title.
Skipper Blyden scored189 runs in six 50-over games with a highest score of 71 and took two wickets. In three T20s he made 79 runs with a highest score of 29 and took two wickets.
In five games in the Three-Day League, Blyden, who plays for GDF in Guyana, has 308 run from seven innings including 105 and an average of 44. He has also taken three wickets with his leg spin. One match remains in the Three-Day League.
(Sean Devers)