NEW York Masters defeated Melbourne Masters on Saturday by 15 runs in the final of the Digicel/Jamaica National Michael Holding Masters Cricket Competition at Ultimate Cricket Ground in Discovery Bay, St Ann.

Melbourne won the toss and invited New York to bat and they made 189-9 in 35 overs. The run-getters were Errol Chambers with 43, Evol Loten with 37, and Derrick Kallicharan with 33. Donald Breadwood and Courtney Walsh were the pick of the bowlers with 4-43 from seven overs, and 2-27 from seven overs, respectively.

Melbourne had a disastrous start when their ace batsman Delroy Morgan was lbw for just eight runs. Mark English with 37 and Courtney O’Connor with 31 got among the runs, while the wickets went to Derrick Kallicharran with 5-35 off seven overs and Clive Garrison with 2-24 off six overs. Melbourne made 174-9 in 35 overs. Melbourne’s second consecutive appearance in the final ended as it did last year, in defeat.

New York Masters bagged $300,000 for their win, while Melbourne took home $150,000 for the runners-up spot.

The awards ceremony followed immediately afterwards. Six scholarships of $50,000 each were announced to the following Under-13 cricketers — Jevoy Spence and Evon Jones of New Hope Primary out of Westmoreland; Anthony Campbell of Madras Primary in St Ann; Kashane Dale of Woodland Primary in Manchester; Jamarley Linton of Hopewell Primary in St Elizabeth, and Carlon McFarlane from Trelawny. Two additional scholarships were awarded by New York Masters from their winning prize money. The awardees are yet to be selected.

Special awards went to Douglas Parnell of Brooklyn Masters for most wickets. He took 13 wickets. Delroy Morgan of Melbourne (272 runs) copped the award for most runs, including the only century of the competition. He got 123 against Caribbean Masters in the preliminary round. The Most Valuable Player Award went to Derrick Kallicharran of New York Masters.

Digicel made special awards to the winning captain of the competition. That went to Austin Hutchinson. The other award went to the Most Outstanding Young Player who was Jevoy Spence.

The team awards went to Melbourne for the runners-up spot and New York Masters for winning the competition. This is their third lien on the trophy in four years.