By Neto Baptiste
Coach of the Jennings Tigers cricket team and former player, Elijah Peters, said his young squad was a victim of inconsistency throughout both the Two Day and the recently concluded Super40 cricket competitions.
Jennings Tigers finished third in the Super40 competition following a 13-runs victory over Rising Sun Spartans in Jennings on Saturday but according to Peters, his team often failed to capitalize on favourable positions during matches.
“Seize momentum, that’s one of the things we need to learn and we learnt that mainly in the semifinals both in the Two Day and the 40 overs. Once you have momentum in cricket you can’t lose it because it is going to be extremely difficult to get it back and especially in big games but as I said, it is a learning curve for us. Most of the guys were playing their first set of semifinals and so on so I feel like we are going to be there challenging in the years to come,” he said.
Peters said his team’s victory in the third place clash on Saturday came as some reprieve after they had gotten to the semis of the Two Day and were beaten by eventual champions, Liberta Blackhawks.
“It wasn’t easy after the loss we had in the semifinals so it was a really tough pill to swallow but the guys knew the task at hand. After the game [semifinals] we had a nice little talk again and we came out training in the week because you know, playing against Rising Sun although a third place game, it is still a big game and we wanted to play for the championship but we didn’t get to but that’s a game we always look forward to because it’s a bit of a rivalry between us so we were motivated,” the coach said.
The former player said his players will take the rest of the month off before preparations start for the anticipated Cool & Smooth T20 Explosion set to bowl off in July.
“We are actually planning right now but in terms of actual practice, we are giving the guys a little time off because we still have a few niggles [injuries] so we will take the rest of the month off and from the 1st of June we are going full force ahead until the tournament starts. I’ve gotten a few players locally outside of what we have but we are looking for a next player or so from overseas but if we don’t get it we will have a few guys coming back like Paul Miller so we are good,” Peters said.
Batting first, Tigers posted 107 all out in 30.3 overs with Cameron Miller hitting a top score of 28. Martin Singh was the pick of the bowlers for the visitors, picking up five wickets for 32 runs in eight overs.
Spartans were then routed for just 94 runs in 24.2 overs with a top score of 24 from Singh. Morton Browne was the best bowler on show for the home team with four wickets for 31 runs in seven overs while Glenton Williams picked up three for 11 in 6.2 overs.
