By Neto Baptiste
Despite having won only one of their four matches in the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association (ABCA) Super 40 Competition to date, coach of multi-time champions PIC Liberta Blackhawks, Kenneth Benjamin, is pleased with what he has seen thus far, particularly in the batting department.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show, Benjamin who is also President of the Liberta Sports Club, highlighted that overall, batting in the tournament has been impressive thus far.
“Honestly, when you look in the tournament and what I have seen, which is something I have not seen in a while is the batsmanship and I think the younger players are now understanding that limited overs is not just going in and throwing your bat and scoring quickly. They are now putting together good innings, they know when to attack, the singles are now being taken so what I am seeing is more understanding and we saw that in the 10 Splash so it is very nice to see that the young batters are now understanding,” he said.
Blackhawks went down to Rising Sun Spartans on Saturday but had previously lost to CUB Bethesda Golden Eagles and New Winthorpes Lions. They rebounded to beat Pigotts Crushers in their fourth match of the competition.
Benjamin said that despite not being perfect in all aspect of the games, players are improving with each match.
“The three games we played that we lost were nail-biters but what we expected we got from the batting unit. The bowling and fielding unit is more where we are just hoping we can go out and get some good performances but the teams play well and they put our bowling and fielding under pressure which is a very young unit but the teams played well and our batting has been performing well, and so when Pigotts were bowled out for 90plus yesterday [Sunday] we figured, we felt that we could have won that easily,” the former West Indies fast bowler said.
The Blackhawks have featured a mostly young squad this far in the competition and are without a number of their marquee players.
“We you don’t have Javy Benjamin who is out with injury, Javier Spencer, Kadeem Henry has gone to Rising Sun and we don’t have Rahkeem Cornwall and Hayden Walsh Jr. Which team in Antigua wouldn’t struggle when you have those guys not there? We are just happy that some of the younger guys can get an opportunity,” Benjamin said.
Blackhawks lay seventh on the 10 team standings with four points. Bethesda, unbeaten after four matches, leads with 16 points but are closely followed by Jennings, New Winthorpes and All Saints Pythons who all have 12 points. Spartans and Anderson Carty Empire Nation both have eight while Pigotts Crushers and Massy United Insurance Combined Schools only have four points. Bolans Basters are at the bottom of the standings without a point.