There have been eight half centuries from eight different players from five teams. Guyana, Nevis and the Cayman Islands had two players each who moved beyond fifty while the other two were Trinidad & Tobago and the United States Virgin Islands.

Shervin Woodley, the aggressive ball beater from Nevis is the tournament’s highest scorer. The right handed power hitter has so far put 105 runs on the board from two innings and he is the only batsman with more than a hundred runs so far.

But which three innings have been the most outstanding? Which three have had fans thumping themselves with joy? Which three have had the capacity flag waving, waist wining crowd in a frenzy?

After all the innings are assessed it is not that difficult to come to general consensus on the matter. That the three are the highest individual scores in the tournament is of mere coincidence. That there were all innings that shook up the opposition to such an extent that they all limbered to defeat is what is of greater significance.

At the top of the list has to be the blinder played by surprise Guyanese pinch hitter Esuan Crandon. After a shellacking of his fast medium bowling by Jamaicans Marlon Samuels and Chris Gayle, three overs costing 39 runs, Crandon was shifted up the order to number three to the astonishment of all outside of the Guyanese dressing room.

Guyana needed 164 from 20 overs to win but it was against an experienced and high quality Jamaican bowling attack. Not very many gave them any chance, especially when their premier batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan was going to fall for only one.

What the left handed hitter produced hushed the critics into a bewildering silence and sent the fans into a bacchanaling uproar.

Crandon, batting as an angered champion batsman pitted against schoolboys, smashed the tournament’s fastest half century, from just 23 balls with nine fours and one six. Only eight runs of his first fifty runs were not scored from boundaries.

But those statistics alone do not make Crandon’s innings the finest of the tournament. It was for the quality of the opposition bowling, five of whom have played Test and One Day Internationals for the West Indies in the past year.

It was for the sheer fearless audacity of his strokeplay. It was for his clean hitting from orthodox cricket strokes. He is “playing authentic cricket shots and timing the ball with excellence,” was how television commentator Ian Bishop assessed his batting.

It was for the fact that without his innings, Guyana would have been quietly packing their bags. It was because his shocking and daring innings dumped the distant tournament favourites out of the competition. He so stunned Jamaica that they had no answer, no reserve tactic, no Plan B.

Defeat was inevitable for Jamaica once he started to go. The longer he batted the wider the margin of victory increased. Guyana eventually got to 168 for 7 with an over to spare and Crandon made 71 from 39 balls with 12 fours and one six at a strike rate of 182.

*Part Two of this three part series coming soon.

Source: Stanford 2020