The biggest, baddest, most highly-anticipated cricket tournament in Antigua commences in seven days. The competition will run from the 29th April to 11th May 2019, with the first game scheduled at 7:30 PM.
The CUB Bethesda Golden Eagles will start their campaign against the Rising Sun Spartans as they look to defend their title. There will be 8 teams to contest the title as the winner will go home with $25,000.00 XCD.
After a weak performance against the New Winthorpes Lions in the first round of matches, the Black Hawks were back to old habits beating Rising Sun Spartans. Batting first, Spartans could only manage a meagre 66 runs as Karima Gore and Rahkeem Cornwall bowled brilliantly to claim seven scalps between them.
Black Hawks began with a solid reply before Kofi James fell with the score on 43. It was then the in-form Gore came to the crease and batted brilliantly . He scored the first century of the competition with a stroke-filled 107 from 155 balls. He built partnerships with several batsmen before he was removed for the first ball he faced on Day 2. Leeward Islands Allrounder Cornwall smashed 42 and Uri Smith chipped in with 37 runs. Medium pacer Owen Graham picked up for wickets with the support of Stanny Simon and Geetesh Harilal who had two apiece.
After being bowled out for 272, Liberta went out to continue their dominating performance claiming the first wicket in only the first over. The second wicket then fell to Gore after he was introduced into the attack early. The Spartans lost wickets at regular intervals and the highest partnership was for the 10th wicket of 34 runs by former Black Hawks Stanny Simon and Clever Martin. The Spartans were eventually bowled out for 118 runs, thus losing by an innings and 88 runs.
The ABCA Two Day Competition has commenced, and so the first round of games were played where we saw some major transfers going into the longer format. The likes of national players Jamaul Fernandez and Stanny Simon, brothers Jewel and Hilroy Andrew and Under 19 Allrounder Kioni Greenaway.
Simon who is also also a former Leeward Islands player spearheaded the transfer window with leaving the Liberta BlackHawks to go to Rising Sun Spartans where he will be looking to make a big statement as he joins his new team. CUB Bethesda will certainly miss their most consistent allrounder in recent times as Fernandez moved on to New Winthorpes, where he will definitely add some weight to the lineup.
The talented Andrews brothers of Jewel and Hilroy went back home to Pigotts Crushers after starting the season at Combined Schools. The coach of Pigotts was very content to have his young players back in the ranks. Moreover, Kioni Greenway left New Winthorpes and joined the Black Hawks and will certainly be looking to harness his young talent and gain some valuable experience from the senior players.
It was a truly dominating performance by the men from Grays Farm, at the Ball Beef yesterday. After following up on their impressive victory against Pigotts on Saturday, they turned their attention to the Liberta Black Hawks who were defending the title for the last 3 years.
After a late start due to rain interruption, Empire won the toss and elected to bat in the 26 Overs game. Damian Lowenfield and Tyrone Williams got off to a brisk start before the latter falling in the 7th Over. They then slipped to 74-4 by the 14th Over, with only 12 Overs remaining.
The game swung Empire’s way with the partnership of Justin Athanaze and former Black Hawks player, Cleton Payne. The two valiantly rebuilt the innings and put on a 97 run blistering partnership. While Payne rotated the strike skillfully from one end, Athanaze smashed the hapless bowlers to all parts of the ground. He bludgeoned a whirlwind 63 from 33 balls blasting 4 fours and 6 sixes with Empire Nation closing on 176 for 7.
At the resumption of play, Liberta got off to quick-fire start with 13 off the first 3 balls, but veteran fast bowler Edwin Richardson had other answers. From then on it was literally slippery slopes for the Black Hawks as batsmen came and went. The run-rate at no point was an issue but the falling of the wickets were, as the largest partnership was 21. The most notable wicket was of Rahkeem Cornwall, who went for a 1 ball duck after he was deceived by an off-cutter by the lanky Richardson. The men in black eventually were rolled over for 82 all out.
Empire Nation Manager Samantha Frank Celebrating
At the end of the match, the presentation was made by the ABCA to award the various teams and players for their performances. National Batsman Tyrone Williams was voted Man of the Series while Justin Athanaze received the Man of the Match award. The ABCA Two Day Competition will commence 30th March, 2018.
In this weekend’s clash between two of the country’s top rivals, All Saints Pythons and Liberta Blackhawk, All Saints Pythons will be looking to cause a major upset against the undefeated champions. They comfortably lead the top of the table with a whopping 36 points and a net run rate 3.088 compared to All Saints 0.052.
With the Black Hawks being defending champions, the Pythons who, despite having a lower net run rate than Rising Sun progressed on the head to head bases by defeating them in the preliminary round. The boys from McPond will have nothing to lose but much to gain against their rivals this weekend.
With a bowling attack spearheaded by West Indies young sensation Alzarri Joseph and inform players Michael Dover who has the second most runs of the competition and Samuel Peters who has the second most wickets, there is no doubt that they will be looking for a major impact from these players to enhance their chances even more.
Black Hawks on the other hand have the inform Uri Smith who has had a good turn out in his first season, scoring the 3rd most runs, while Karima Gore and Kofi James who are in the top 10 of leading all rounders so far in the season along with the experienced Rahkeem Cornwall, Kadeem Phillip and Ian Gore who are more than capable of changing the game at anytime. With this in mind will the Hawks continue their winning streak or will the pythons dethrone them? Only time will tell at Ball Beef.
With three teams on the 16 points, the pressure was indeed on. Rising Sun Spartans, All Saints Pythons and Pigotts Crushers were under great pressure on the weekend as they all knew how important wins on the weekend would help their cause. The scenario presented the case where two would go through to the semi finals.
All Saints seemed to have the best opportunity at qualifying for the next round since they were playing Jennings & Combined Schools and their star fast bowler, Alzarri Joseph would be donning the navy blue uniform, but unfortunately it was not to be so. Jennings delivered a great upset and joining Pythons on 16 points, consequently putting them on the back foot going into the next game where they knew it was a ‘must win’.
I Elsewhere, Pigotts beat Bolans comprehensively to move up to 20 points, while CUB Bethesda trounced Spartans by 26 runs. This meant that Pigotts could breathe a bit easier for the next game against New Winthorpes Lions. As a result of those games on Saturday, a new scenario was presented. Jennings being on 16 points just needed to beat Rising Sun on Sunday and they would be in their first Semi-final. Rising Sun needed to beat Jennings and hope that Combined Schools could upset All Saints Pythons having lost to Pythons in the 3rd Round.
On Sunday, as expected All Saints were better than their previous game, chalking up a big total after a reduced game due to inclement weather. They then strangled Combined Schools batting line up with early wickets from their fast bowling in Joseph and Peters. The Pythons continued their squeeze with 17 year old leg spinner Rasheed Henry who took 5 scalps. They won comprehensively, but immediately had to turn their attention to the game at Rising Sun.
The Rising Sun vs Jennings game was very valiantly fought out by the two teams. Rising Sun posted a fairly challenging total where Shaquan Hewlett smashed 91. Jennings knew what was at stake and truly gave a fight but with the steady fall of wickets proved futile and too much work for the lower middle order. Winston “Hama” Nelson, batted and batted very well restoring a sense of belief that they could actually progress, however that was not so. After Nelson being out, Rising Sun quickly wrapped up the game .
In the other game, Pigotts beat the New Winthorpes Lions as they defended the total they posted. This meant that Pigotts would finish in 3rd position with 24 points, while Pythons and Spartans ended on 20 apiece to tie for 4th position. It then came down to head to head ruling which Pythons, having beaten Spartans, claimed 4th place. It means now that All Saints will meet Liberta, while Empire and Pigotts will battle for supremacy on the 23rd of March 2019.