ST. MAARTEN—St. Maarten crashed to their first defeat of the Nagico Cricket Tournament losing to Antigua by 91 runs yesterday.
Some light seepage under the covers caused the game to be delayed for 45 minutes and the overs were reduced to 45 overs. Unlike the two previous games when St. Maarten were sent in to bat, Antigua elected to bat after winning the toss and were all out for 201 in 44 overs.
Several Antigua batsmen were in double figures: Mali Richards was caught by Williams from the bowling of John Eugene on 21, Austin Richards scored 30 runs, Orlando Peters, 12, Gavin Williams 51, Wilden Cornwall, 16, Carl Simon, 12, Justin Athanaze, 11 and Larry Joseph on 3.
Bowling for St Maarten, David scored one for 51; Eugene 3 for 26, Hamer 2 for 34 and Doodnauth in 6.2 overs did not score a maiden over and finished 4 for 24. Chasing 202 to win turned out to be difficult for St. Maarten.
There were two quick wickets with S. Le Blanc out LBW without scoring, and Doodnauth caught by Richards from the bowling of Simon on 2.
M Le Blanc, the new batsman then joined Peters out in the middle and with the score pushed to 36, Le Blanc playing an irresponsible shot was caught by K. Mentore from the bowling of Simon on 13. Bowling for Antigua, Simon had 3 for 20; Martin, 2 for 14, Athanaze, 2 for 14 and Joseph, 3 for 28 with one maiden over.
However, that defeat does not signal the end for St. Maarten in this tournament. They advanced with Antigua to the semi-finals and will face St. Kitts in the first semi-final game on Friday. On Saturday, Nevis will face Antigua.