It was no doubt a weekend of glorious weather; the type of weather that is suited for cricket except the hot sun. But hey, this is the game that we love, you know where there is sun, there is fun. And fun it was for five clubs who registered their first wins for the season and five well not so much fun, but as arwe Antiguans would say ‘dem get bang off and sun bun.’ Enough of all the unnecessary talk, let’s talk cricket.
Featured Game
The Liberta Black Hawks visited the Pythons and did what hawks usually do to snakes, ‘nyam food.’ The Pythons may want to rethink their name for now until they get some wins under their belt, more like the local racer snakes (who are a bit tame and docile) because they have just not been performing like a Python would, but there again we are going off on a tangent. Back to cricket now. So Liberta won the toss and batted first and were immediately set back with the miserly bowling of ever-impressing Rodney “Bobali’ Williams. He bowled aggressively and reaped early rewards leaving Liberta at 8 for 2 in the 4th over.
However, in came former Pythons batsman Amahl ‘Baje’ Nathaniel who started nervously but steadily grew in confidence. He and Kofi James batted with some purpose as they scored quite quickly. James was a bit more watchful, but Nathaniel already in a rich vein of form from the previous game was savage to any poor bowling tossed up. He took a liking to the Python spinners, who served up dinner on a plate and he made good use of it. The batsman smashed 6 sixes and 4 fours, registering his second half century in two games. The pair put on 136 for the 3rd wicket before Nathaniel (86) was bowled on the brink of lunch by a peach from the talented off-spin bowling of Kenny Sutton. After lunch, James (54) quickly fell lbw to a straight ball from Kadeem ‘Leggie’ Josiah who has continued to dazzle with his leg spin. Montserrat player Zowandie White on debut for Black Hawks and contributed little soon followed.
But then, Captain Kadeem Phillip (60) strolled out to the crease knowing the task at hand. He found some support from Joshua Thomas and Wilden Cornwall Jr. He took over the earlier onslaught from Nathaniel and made it his own. He scored quite freely as the spinners had no clue how to ease the quick scoring. But credit must be given to the Pythons Captain Michael Haynes-Dover for persisting with Conroy Semple after he had been absolutely smashed by Nathaniel for 3 consecutive sixes over deep midwicket. He came up with the goods this time to dismiss Phillip leaving Liberta at 237 for 7. Afterwards, Cornwall Jr. put on 39 for the 8th wicket with Miandre James before the former departed. The next two wickets fell in quick succession after the Liberta Black Hawks were bowled out for 288.
At the start of The Pythons innings, there was an immediate hiccup in the 5th over, with the removal of Malik Marcellin. Then Sutton and Dover tried their best to make repairs to the early damage inflicted. But then with the arrival of Philip and James, the Pythons were no match for the skill and persistence of the duo. Sutton was caught by James off the bowling Phillip, which is believed to be one of the best of five catches in the match. After this wicket, the men from All Saints lost their next seven wickets for a paltry of 38 runs. There was literally no resistance from the middle or lower order, just Edwin Jackson scored an unbeaten 23. It just so happened at the loss of the final wicket due to the fact that Semple did not bat due to other commitments, the end of play for day one was reached.
At the start of day two, Liberta decided to bat again to continue their already massive lead. James was clearly in a no nonsense mood, attacking the fast bowlers early on. However, it was the man Williams again removing James for 25 but like in any game, one became two, two became three and three became four, very quickly. This caused the Liberta men to reassess their strategy and tactics to win the game outright. Phililp and Thomas quickly rebuilt the innings putting on 41 for the 6th wicket before Phillip was found plumb in front of wicket by Josiah. Within the same over, Cornwall Jr. was runout by Marcelin bringing the Black Hawks innings to a close.
Set a target of 324, All Saints Pythons began the chase with some purpose, as Dover and Malone Joseph put on 25 for the first wicket before Dover departed. However, Joseph found great support from Marcellin as the pair put on 100 for the second wicket. The left handed Joseph smashed 14 boundaries in a 77 ball 75 with 14 boundaries before he fell lbw to Philip. However, the score of 125-2 quickly became 127-3, when Sutton was bowled convincingly by Philip. Jackson and Marcelin started to rebuild from the earlier harm inflicted by Phillip. But it was that man again, Phillip, who broke the partnership leaving Pythons on 164-4 and Jackson fell to Nathaniel in the very next ball giving him his first wicket for the Liberta Black Hawks. Demitri Lucas quickly followed leaving the men from All Saints reeling at 156-6.
It was all or nothing now, as Pythons knew that the best thing they could do was to hold Hawks to a draw to get some points out of the game. Meaning that they would have to bat the remaining 30 overs. Former Empire Nation player Samuel Peters batted with much caution as he and Josiah defended almost everything pitched/tossed up. The two batted for 15 overs before Peters was caught behind to an excellent diving catch low to the ground by K. Philip. Another great catch. After the fall of Peters, the innings quickly folded in the space of seven overs. Therefore, Pythons were bowled out for 221, a triple improvement from their first innings that they would want to forget. K Philip was adjudged man of the match.
MATCHES ELSEWHERE
CUB Bethesda Golden Eagles hosted the ever improving SIC Jennings who won the toss and elected to field. They met with some early resistance from the Eagles openers as they quickly put on 40 for the first wicket, before J. Martin got the much needed breakthrough. He then quickly removed K. Pitman leaving the men from east reeling at 46-2. As the innings progressed, a few decent partnerships were created but they didn’t really materialize to anything of significance as G. Williams and P. Miller began their onslaught as the spin twins shared eight wickets between them. Bethesda were bundled out for 167 with M. Hiarsham top scoring with 38. P. Miller was the pick of the bowlers with 5-49.
At the start of Jennings innings, SIC Jennings were on their back foot very early as K. Pitman and J. Joseph removed the first 12 wickets. Orlando Peters 59 from 65 balls steadied the ship as he found support from other batsmen. When he department, Jennings were 123-6 then D. Francis fell in the very next over bringing together, M. Gerald and W. Nelson, who put on 56 for the 8th wicket allowing Jennings to secure the first innings win. After Gerald was dismissed, the innings quickly closed for 199 giving them a 32 run lead over Bethesda.
It was surely a calamitous start to the innings of Bethesda, as the first four wickets went for ducks, due to the impressive bowling of J Martin and O Peters, as they broke the clipped the wings of Golden Eagles. T. Mason and E. Lawrence were the only 2 batsmen to present any form of resistance to the charge of the men from Jennings. As soon as Mason fell, the innings was all wrapped up for the mere score of 82. It therefore meant that Jennings needed 51 runs to win. K Pitman removed Africa for 6 with the score on 16 before brothers Paul and Cameron Miller put on a partnership of 23 until Paul was bowled by D Joseph. J Martin was promoted up the order to see the game home, and comfortably did so as Jennings beat Bethesda by 8 wickets.
Empire Nation welcomed Bolans yet again at the King George V Ground. In their last meeting, Bolans were treated harshly as the men from Grays Green scored over 600 runs with 3 batsmen registering centuries so they kept this in mind at toss. Bolans won the toss (“Ah bey arwe ah get batting” they probably said) and elected to bat with T. Tonge top scoring with 37 runs as he batted with great courage, but it was that man again, Captain Courageous, Justin “Saki” Athanaze who destroyed, yet again, another batting lineup. The former Leeward Islands off- spinner picked up 7 for 34 as he found little resistance from Bolans.
Unfortunately, the men from Empire Nation were in for a rude awakening at the onset of their innings as Jevaughn James was all out with a vengeance. The embarrassment from the previous game between these two opponents, is probably still fresh and will probably forever will be on the mind of James, so as he took matters into his own hands. James bowled with pace and bounce, and got adequate movement off the wicket, as he was responsible for literally blowing away the top order. He and Martin Caesar reduced Empire to 27-4 inside of 8 overs.
However, Athanaze showed his dominance with the bat as he bludgeoned the bowling of the men from South. He received great support from T. Benjamin, as the two put on a 130 in 16 overs before Caesar removed Benjamin caught and bowled. Athanaze quickly followed with the score at 166-6 but Bolans, not having the killer instinct to finish off the innings, allowed Nation’s tail to wag, and wag did they, as they put on 83 for the last 4 wickets. Empire were eventually bowled out for 249 runs.
Bolans second innings started quite slowly as Athanaze opened the ball with Heyliger and as expected, he pegged them back straight away keeping them on a tight leash as they were not allowed to score freely. Caesar and D Fordyce put on 47 for the 5th wicket, before the latter fell to Rasheed Henry. With this wicket, Nation sensed an opportunity for victory as the reintroduction of Athanaze removed the remaining few batters. Bolans were bowled out for 132 which meant that Empire only had to score 5 runs to win.
And as it is widely known, here, there and everywhere, that the game of cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties. Would you believe it that needing just 5 runs to win, Empire would lose a wicket? Well you should definitely believe it! Because this was the case when T. Williams fell for a duck to the third ball of the innings to Caesar, giving the men from Bolans much hope. However, B. Jn Baptiste, was not going to be out in this innings as he smashed a 4 to end the game. Empire had won convincingly by 9 wickets, as they registered their first win of 2020. Justin Athanaze was voted man of the match for picking up 10 wickets in the game.
In another encounter, Rising Sun Spartans traveled to Blizzard to face the home team, New Winthorpes Lions. Batting first, they amassed a total of 161 with former West Indies Captain Sylvester ‘Bouncing’ Joseph smashing an unbeaten 68 from 45 balls with 8 fours and 4 ‘big ones’. Montserrat player Deno Baker available only for the first day, collected 7 scalps and left to board the next ferry back to Montserrat. Call him the ‘assassin’ if you ask us.
When Spartan turn came to bat, they started pretty steadily with S. Floyd and T. Allen before the latter was removed by Z. Otto. Then Floyd found some support from former national U-19 player X. Marshall who stoked a patient 40. However, leg-spinner A. Cornelius made the breakthrough to remove Marshall as he found backing from medium pacer, I. Peters. Floyd (64) would go on to register his first half century for Spartans but eventually departing to the bowling of the talented H. Tonge aka ‘Muscle’. The rest of the Rising Sun batting order offered little resistance as they were bundled out for 208, gaining a 47 run advantage. A. Cornelius and I. Peters were the pick of the bowlers as they collected three wickets apiece.
The men from Blizzard knew that they would need to clear the deficit in order to set a target for Spartans. So the openers made sure they got the job done as J. Fernandez (56 made light work of any poor bowling and R. Francis was content to block everything that came. After the pair was broken, S. Moore (36) scored quickly before he was dismissed. The middle order did not pose much defense as the Spartans steadily made inroads. However, Peters showed some fight with bat as he made 29 in the lower order. R. Thomas, Marshall and G. Harillal shared seven wickets between them.
Set 134 to win, the New Winthorpes Lions made some headway as they removed Floyd and D. Wills early. But then, Marshall and Allen batted valiantly as they began chipping away at the target. But after putting solid stand, Marshall fell to the bowling of Fernandez and Allen followed soon after. With just over fifty runs needed, Owen ‘Entertainer’ Graham walked out to the crease in a ‘no nonsense’ mode as he blasted a 20 ball 37 with 3 fours and 3 sixes. S. Moore had other ideas as he bowled Graham and W. Challenger in consecutive balls. With less than 15 runs to go and three wickets to win, the men from Blizzard probably thought for a minute there was a possibility they could pull off a win, but it was not to be as Melvin Charles and Dario Hodge saw them home. The wickets were shared amongst Moore, Otto and Cornelius. It was a very good victory for the town team as they now turn their attention to Empire Nation for the derby game. We will call that game “Who Run Town”.
Pigotts Crushers made light work of Combined Schools as Demari Benta stroked a brilliant 84 to register is first half ton of the season. Pigotts had a total of nine batsmen reaching double figures as the made 257 all out. Essan Warner was the pick of the bowlers picking up 3-64 in 21 overs while he received support from M. Harillal, Pollard and Clarke.
The school boys top order really and truly had no answers for pace and ferocity from the Pigotts’ quicks. When Timmo Thomas pitched the ball up, the batsmen were just too late to react and were either bowled or leg before wicket. But George Elvin (53) provided some fight as he showed great maturity recording his first half century of the season to follow up the strong performances he had in the recently held ABCA U-17+ tournament where he was voted MVP. Other than E. Warner’s 10, no other batsman reached double figures as Schools made 99 all out. Former West Indies U-19 player E. Francis Jr. picked up 3-16 as he was ably assisted by Thomas, Shadrach and Henry all taking 2 apiece.
Pigotts already having a 158 run lead decided to bat again with K. Henry making 37 and Francis Jr. got 26 before they declared at the loss of the 5th wicket for 104. Shaquan Oneil picked up 3-31 as he was the pick of the bowlers. It therefore meant that Combined Schools would have to chase 262 to win the game outright which was clearly unforeseeable. On this occasion, Captain Francis Jr. opted for left arm spin of Henry to do damage as he picked up 4-30, while Windward Islands player Tyrone Theophile grabbed 3-31. Schools were bowled out for 111 in 37 overs, giving Crusher their first win of the season. The End!