NAGICO-LICA Cricket One Day Tournament
Antigua Completes Another Convincing Victory Over St Maarten - Manager Confident of Winning Double.
By Rawle Nelson
In Photo seated left to right: NAGICO's Marketing Manager, Jasmine Payne; NAGICO's Managing Director, Mr. Eric Ellis; President of LICA, Mr. Gregory Shillingford and President of the St. Kitts Cricket Association, Mr. Ingleton Liburd.
As the 2008 Leeward Islands NAGICO Sponsored One Day Cricket Competition continued with fourth round matches Antigua seems evident that they are intent on taking the double this year. After demolishing a helpless St Kitts team in the final of the three day competition a few days ago; Antigua has soundly beaten each team that they have faced thus far in the NAGICO sponsored competition.
In their third round action they soundly inflicted a severe thrashing on BVI after they rooted them for a meager 54 runs. The Antiguans continued their onslaught when they faced St Maarten who was also convincingly beaten by Nevis.
The match which was played at the Warner Park Cricket Ground was punctuated with stoppage due to rain. At the stoppage of play Antigua was 233 for the loss of one wicket.
The game had gotten off to a late start due to heavy overnight rain and despite the game starting at 10:15 another heavy shower of rain came at 1:10 pm thus bringing the Antigua innings to an end.
The Duckworth/Lewis system was used resulting in St Maarten being required to make a total of 273 runs from 43 overs. However they failed to get any way close and were bundled out for 155 all out in 37.1 overs.
Leading the charge was the young Austin Richards, who picked up the third century in this year's one day competition when he made an elegant undefeated 111 to build a solid foundation for his team. Richards total was made from 138 deliveries in 137 minutes and was laced with j ten fours and four sixes. Richards had the St Maarten bowlers on the ropes as he dispatched them to all corners of the filed on his way to a well played and disciplined century.
He was well supported by Odelmo Peters who made 59 not out from 45 deliveries that he had faced in 51 minutes which included six fours. Mali Richards, son of the legendary Viv Richards, made a valuable 40 from 51 deliveries faced in 45 minutes. His knock included six fours and one six. There was a 95 run partnership between both Richards.
Kenroy David with six overs no maiden and twenty eight runs claimed the only Antiguan wicket that had fallen. St Maarten in their reply lost wickets rapidly. Shermil Peters with an even 50 top scored for his team which he faced 77 deliveries from 122 minutes and included six fours and one six. Damion Wiliams with 26 not out from 59 deliveries in 97 minutes including one four and captain John Eugene 23 from 27 deliveries in 33 minutes laced with four fours were the only otherv main contributors.
Returning with the ball, Mali had 2.2 overs where he bagged three wickets for just seven runs. Third round bowling star Larry Joseph had seven overs where he captured two wickets for 23 runs and Justin Athanaze had nine overs where he too captured two wickets for 34 runs. There were no maidens and in the end St Maarten lost the match by 118 runs.
Manager of the St Maarten team, Dereck Holliday said that his team has failed to stick to the game plan that they had hoped to execute in the tournament. He pointed out batting as the greatest weak point in his team's attempt in winning this year's competition. "I am extremely disappointed with our batting as I thin that we could do better but we will just have to revisit our drawing board with the view of winning our three remaining matches," Holliday said.
He noted that reaching the semifinal stage of the competition is a priority for his team and hopes that the guys will make it a reality. "I hope that we can reach the semifinals as this competition is very important to us," he said.
Meanwhile, Manager of the Antigua team, Huge Gore noted that discipline has been the hallmark of his tea's performance. He confessed that there are some players who have lived up to expectations while they are others who have not done so. He however agreed that with regards to discipline he has seen it from every player thus making them a strong unit. "Discipline is the key to success and I have seen it and I trust that I will continue to see it in every match we play as we are confident of winning the one day title along with the three days that we have already won," Gore stressed.
St. Maarten will certainly need to boost their fielding if they are to make it into the final four in an attempt at winning this year's title as their catching and fielding certainly needs improvement.