BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Miguel Cummins hailed his time spent at the Sagicor West Indies High Performance Centre for helping to transform his bowling.
Barbados’ top-order batting built on a platform provided by the 22-year-old fast bowler to gain a first innings lead over Trinidad & Tobago in the Grand Final of the Regional 4-Day Tournament on Thursday here.
Cummins exploited a grassy Kensington Oval pitch, capturing 5-30 from 12.4 overs, as T&T, sent in to bat, were bowled out for 110 in their first innings about 55 minutes after lunch on the opening day.
"I learnt a lot at the Sagicor WIHPC," said Cummins. "I got a lot stronger. I got fitter. I got more knowledge about the game. All of this helped me to improve, so I have to thank the coaches for the work that they did."
It was the third time this season that Cummins had taken five wickets or more in an innings, including 7-45 against the same opponents at Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad in the preliminary competition. He now has 31 wickets for the season.
"It feels great to be among the wickets again," he said. "The body was feeling nice and I did everything I had planned to do.
"Things have been going great for me this season. This is my first full season playing for Barbados at the senior regional level. I had one match last year and it didn’t work out that well – but I was determined and came back and told myself ‘this year would be my year’."
Cummins collected the scalps of West Indies opener Adrian Barath, as well as Yannic Cariah and Jason Mohammed in the space of seven deliveries in an opening spell that reduced T&T to nine runs for four wickets inside the first half-hour.
He later added West Indies wicketkeeper/batsman Denesh Ramdin for three and completed the T&T innings with the scalp of Rayad Emrit for the top score of 34.
"I am a seam bowler and it seems that I have a knack for taking early wickets which comes from just bowling the right line and length and being patient," he said.
Kraigg Brathwaite was not out on 49, Barbados captain Kirk Edwards made 48 and opener Rashidi Boucher scored 46, as the home team reached 144 for two in reply when stumps were drawn.
But Cummins is already looking to continue his impressive run for the season when Barbados bowls for a second time in the match.
"We are going to look to bat the whole day on Friday, but if we have to bowl at all, I’ll be looking to come out bowling as hard again as I did on the first day," he said.