NAGICO-LICA Cricket One Day Tournament
St Kitts Beat Anguilla to Book Spot in Semi-Finals.
By Rawle Nelson
In Photo: A Player from the St. Kitts team faces a ball from an Anguillian bowler as they faced each other at St. Mary's Park at the NAGICO Sponcored LICA tournament.
It is referred to as a game of glorious uncertainty! That is the game of cricket. This was the ideal case when St Kitts and Anguilla face off with each other at the St Mary’s Park on Sunday for the sixth round action in the 2008 NAGICO Sponsored Leeward Islands Cricket Competition.
With a number of cricket fans turning out to support both teams in the match Anguilla won the toss and choose to bat on a pitch which was ideal for batting. The Anguillans made a total of 250 for the loss of nine wickets in their allotted 50 overs. Leading the onslaught of the St Kitts bowling was Montsin Hodge with a terrific 93 which consisted of seven fours and one giant six which was achieved in 115 deliveries.
Giving valuable support to Hodge was Chacka Hodge with an even half century. Captain Steven Liburd and Juni Mitchum both had four wickets for 40 and 54 runs respectively. The Anguillans had built an innings that they thought was enough to give them the additional two points thus confirming their semifinal spot and ending St Kitts reign as defending champion.
In the run chase St Kitts lost some early wickets and was guilty of failing to capitalize on some scoring opportunities. However, a match saving innings by Greg Stanley with 47 and significant support by Codville Rogers 42, Junie Mitchum 36, Jacques Taylor 26, Shane Jeffers 25 and Steve Liburd 21 helped St Kitts to win a breathtaking match.
The match had those in attendance on their toes at one stage as the sea saw affair had many guessing and wondering as to who will win the critically important match.
However, the local lads held their nerve to pull off a one wicket victory. The victory was achieved in the penultive ball of the innings. Final scores Anguilla 250 for nine from 50 overs, St Kitts 251 for nine from 49.5 overs. Chesney Hughes with three for 46 and Yannick Leonard two for 24 were the key wicket takers.
Captain Steve Liburd said after that he was very excited and confident that his guys were capable of pulling off the win. “We knew what we had to do and we went out and got it done as we are on a mission of retaining our title this year,” he said.
“As the defending champion we know that we are a very string and discipline team and today’s game demonstrated the caliber of players and skills that we have and with us booking our semifinal spot we will now look ahead to the semifinals and finals as we have a title to defend,” he stressed.
Anguilla top scorer Montsin Hodge expressed disappointment over his team failing to win the match after his heroic innings. “It was a good toss to win. We started good in the field, but lost it in the middle overs where they got away from us...
"...But, I think 250 was an excellent figure to defend on this ground but its cricket and we continue to see that a lot of surprises continues to take centre stage in this sport,” Hodge said.
He added “We needed to get a good start, but we didn't and that set us back and while we went on and made 250 it was still not enough, we needed another 30-50 runs and we would have sealed the game as we can beat St Kitts and those in attendance would have seen that we almost did that”.