CARIBE LUMBER, ST. MAARTEN—St. Maarten made it to the finals for the first time in the seven-year history of the Nagico One Day Cricket tournament, by defeating one of the competition favorites St. Kitts by five wickets at the Caribe Lumber Ballpark in St. Maarten yesterday.
St. Maarten’s excellent bowling attack rattled the St. Kitts batting line up, bowling them out for just 157 runs in 47.2 overs. Asa Edwards was the pick of the St. Maarten bowlers, grabbing four wickets for 22 runs and four maiden overs, a superb performance worthy of man of the match. Colin Hamer picked up two wickets, Kenroy David, two for 29 and Lionel Ritchie two for 31 to complete a devastating start for the visiting St. Kitts team.
Unfortunately for the St. Kitts team, they flew into St. Maarten yesterday morning and headed straight for the cricket field with little or not time to eat or gear up for the match. But that aside, the semi-professional players were not going to use that as an excuse, but come ready to play cricket. Captain Shane Jeffers was the first to go for 22 runs when Kenroy David made a perfect delivery caught by Anil Persaud. Opener Lester Marrishaw was the next to go for eight runs, 21 mintues later and the first casualty of Asa Edwards thanks to a perfect catch by Colin Hamer. Steve Liburd and Junie Mitchum went out for three and four runs respectively and did not aid the St. Kitts’ cause for more runs. Codville Rogers, the St. Kitts centurion in the tournament scored 24 runs before he was strumped by wicket keeper Royston Trocard. He became Asa Edward’s second victim. From this point onwards, it was only Elsroy Powell that provided some stability to the St. Kitts team and he scored 57 runs not out. James Taylor, Terrence Ward, Calvin Williams, Kevin Hanley and Christandria Carey all scored single figures of six, five, nine, two and six respectively.
TIME TO SHINE
After the lunch break, it was time for the St. Maarten batsmen to shine, and so they did; but not before Anil Persaud was run out in the first over courtesy of James Taylor’s bowling. The first three overs were a bit scary for St. Maarten with one of the fielders dropping what would have been a perfect catch and another close call for a runout. Had things gone St. Kitts’ way, St. Maarten in the first three overs would have lost three wickets and place immense pressure on St. Maarten. Coach Percy Daniel of St. Kitts had a strategy of using spin bowlers in the like of Terrence Ward, coming off the heels of a hatrick in the match against Nevis on Wednesday and mixing him with pace bowlers, which would was designed to restrict St. Maarten’s run rate and get early wickets. This would have placed pressure on St. Maarten’s key batsman, John Eugene to hit big runs. But not having those early wickets, St. Maarten was in cruise control mode, much to the delight of John Eugene. Eugene and Murlon Le Blanc, shared a wonderful partnership, with Eugene playing some easy strokes, with occasional boundary shots and singles from almost every ball. Only Christandra Carey scored maiden overs for St. Kitts (two), which showed the magnitude and the little pressure on St. Maarten’s batsmen. Opener Sherwin Peters was next to go LBW from Carey’s bowling but this was almost one hour after the first wicket fell. Le Blanc scored 33 runs before being caught midwicket by Junie Mitchum, again from Carey’s bowling; John Eugene scored 51 runs and Romain Doodnauth was not out on 21 runs. Doodnauth was also very relaxed at the crease, not under any pressure to make big runs. At one point, St. Maarten needed only 66 runs to win from 144 balls at the end of the 26th over. The team made 100 runs on the 28th over while it took St. Kitts 32 overs to make that score. St. Maarten’s Royston Trocard was stumped foolishly trying to swipe at a ball, hoping to hit a boundary shot to end the match, when St. Maarten need only two runs to win. Kenroy David was not out without scoring. Doodnauth made the winning shot after sloppy fielding by St. Kitts led to three runs, one more than was needed to seal victory. The Caribe Lumber Ballpark was in pandemonium as St. Maarten finally made it to its first finals of the Nagico One Day Cricket Tournament.
HISTORY
St. Maarten Coach Rishie Singh was calmly elated at the win and was pleased with his team’s performance. "I am very proud of the guys, they really came out and play. We came in this tournament with a mission and we had a goal in mind and that goal was to reach the semi-final…we brought that confidence in the semi-final, they executed what we planned and I am very, very satisfied with how the team played so far," Singh said. The coach fully understands the pressure that is on his team now to do well in its first ever finals, but credits his team’s mental preparation as the key to victory. "I don’t believe there is a lot of pressure on us. Its our first final, we want to go out there and enjoy it," Singh said. St Maarten lost its only match against Antigua and should they face them again in the finals, Singh and his team will be ready. "Coming out of the game with Antigua, we have learnt a lot. We have shown that we can be competitive and we actually bowled them out for (201)…we are mentally prepared for that game," said Singh.
The St. Maarten coach credit the bowlers for their superb performance, but particularly Asa Edwards that picked up four wickets in fine style and who has been playing well so far in this tournament.
ST. KITTS’ CHALLENGES
St. Kitts captain Shane Jeffers was graceful in defeat. He lamented about the teams hurried traveling arrangements but did not attribute this to the team’s loss. "It’s a norm for us to be down here (in the semi-finals) for the past seven years and the cricket association in St. Kitts waited until this morning for us to come (to St. Maarten) and I can’t see any right in that," lamented Jeffers. He said the team has been up since 4:00am, headed off the plane and straight to the cricket grounds without having anything to eat; but he blamed the poor batting performance of the team for their loss. "We are semi-professionals and so we still have to overcome it…coming straight off a plane and coming to a game, its not easy," he said.
He noted that the little energy they had to exert on the field was reason for their poor body language and performance in the field. He commended his players for giving their all on the field, as he considered it a good performance for his team to restrict St. Maarten to 37 overs to meet the 157-run target.
As the tournament closes for them, Jeffers is glad to see longtime teammate Elsroy Powell displaying good performances througout the tournament. He hopes now that he and other teammates that have excelled at this level will continue working on their skills for the next big competition.
Coach Percy Daniel said that even though the team did not perform as they wanted to, he was hoping the team would have delivered on the early wicket opportunities in the first three overs. He believes this could have made a difference in the game. "It is very important in this version of the game that you put pressure on the batsmen coming in…we didn’t capitalize on the chances and if we had capitalized on the chances, that put the momentum in St. Kitts favor. He commended the St. Maarten bowlers for placing the ball in the right areas on the pitch, which he believes was the reason St. Kitts’ batsmen succumbed to St. Maarten’s bowling. St. Maarten will know its opponent in the finals on Sunday after the Nevis vs. Antigua game today, which will play at the Caribe Lumber Ballpark. The finals will play at the same venue.