CAYON, ST. KITTS—Nevis has placed its stamp on the Nagico One Day Cricket tournament yesterday with a six wicket win at the St. Mary’s Grounds in Cayon, St. Kitts. Montserrat, who batted first, scored 222 for nine after 50 overs; St. Kitts responded with 223 for four in 41.4 overs.
Montserrat’s wicket keeper Jason Peters after putting on a stunning performance on Monday against St. Kitts, unearthed 70 runs yesterday against Nevis, the highest individual runs scored in that match. However, the 70 runs were not good enough to propel a win against the stalwart Nevis team. Montserrat’s captain Lionel Baker could only manage 30 runs despite coming off a 68 run performance against St. Kitts on Monday. Nevis’ Nelson Bolan caught him off Jason Williams’ bowling. Nesta Piper of Montserrat scored 18 before Kieron Powell caught him. Dolston Tuitt failed to score, Shernal Burnes scored 29, Brian Stephany 10 runs and the experienced McPherson Meade knocked 34 runs. The promising teenage cricketer Tevin Osbourne disappointingly scored four runs. Nevis bowled 27 extras.
Nelson Bolan, Joseph Williams, Dennison Brown and Jason Campbell all took two wickets each for Nevis. All except Brown and Williams played 10 overs with between 46 and 56 runs scored from them. Trevier Smitten had three maiden overs and a wicket with 17 runs scored from him. On the batting end, Kieron Powell notched 44 runs; Kejal Tuson scored 28 runs, Javier Liburd 45 and Runako Morton 25. Daynson Browne and Tonito Willet were not out on 38 and 21 runs respectively. Only Tevin Osbourne and Damien Williams took wickets for Nevis, as Lionel Baker, Quinton Boatswain, Brian Stephney, McPherson Meade and Shernyl Burns all failed to take wickets. Montserrat coach Jeff Lane was disappointed in his team’s bowling, which he believes let down the effort of the batsmen. "Our bowling department really let us down today. We were looking at 240 to 260 but we got 222, which we think is a respectable score. I don’t think the bowling was up to what I expected," Lane said. "Our guys did not bowl the consistent line we are expected to bowl over the past week against Antigua in a practice match," he assessed. Nevertheless, Coach Lane had high praises for wicket keeper and ace batsman Jason Peters’ knock of 70. "What he did here (yesterday) was just an exhibition of what he has in store and he is only going to grow from here on," Lane said. Regarding Lionel Baker’s sub-par performance today, Lane believes he was lacking the support from his team mates, but hopes to go out and play a "hard game of cricket" today against the USVI. "We will take the game as another game and try to win the game against USVI," Lane said.