North Sound, Antigua – Fast bowler Gavin Tonge celebrated his 29th birthday on Friday with a career-best performance to bowl Leeward Islands to their first victory in the WICB’s Caribbean T20 2012 Tournament.
The powerfully-built six-footer took three top order wickets to end with 3-23 off his four overs as Leewards bowled out Canada for 108 runs in 20 overs at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground. The home team then marched to 109-2 off 13.4 overs to win by eight wickets and register their first points after defeats at the hands of Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago.
"It was a great day for me out there. I enjoyed every moment of it. We needed a win and we got it. To come out and get career-best figures in Twenty20 and win the match for my team is something special," said Tonge who bowled with heart in front a crowd which included family members and friends.
"I was getting the ball to do a bit so as the most experienced bowler in the line-up I knew I was the man the team was looking to. I knew once I got it in the right areas I could reap rewards," added Tonge, who won the Star of the Match award.
He added: "After we lost by such a big margin to T&T we went back to the drawing board. We got hit hard in that match but we knew we had to fight back and we needed to do something for our home supporters. Today we bowled well and it was really good to see the way the batsmen took us to victory."
The Caribbean T20 continues on Saturday with the third round of matches in Group B. Combined Campuses & Colleges face Sussex at 4 pm (3 pm Jamaica Time) while Barbados take on Jamaica at 8 pm (7 pm Jamaica Time).