Benjamin: Complacency crept in

Coach of the Leeward Islands Hurricanes, Winston Benjamin, has blamed his team’s first loss in the Regional Four-Day cricket competition on a lack of urgency and seriousness by players.
Hurricanes went under by 157 runs to the Jamaica Scorpions in the fourth-round clash played at Warner Park in St. Kitts over the weekend.
According to the former West Indies fast bowler, he was fearful ahead of the clash that complacency could find its way into the performances.
“I spoke to the guys about it before the game, I spoke to them about it during training that I am not happy with what I am seeing. We didn’t bat well in the first innings and I thought we bowled a lot better in the second innings, but as I said, Jamaica was struggling prior to this game they capitalised on our mistakes,” he said.
Left-arm spinner Nikita Miller bagged 5-31 from 20 overs, ending with match figures of 10-87, and leg-spinner Damion Jacobs collected 3-65 from 19.4 overs, as the Hurricanes were bowled out for 144 in their second innings on the final day.
West Indies “A” Team opener Montcin Hodge and rookie Terence Warde led the way with 30 apiece, and former Scorpions’ wicketkeeper/batsman and part-time medium-fast bowler Devon Thomas made 25, while Hurricanes captain Rahkeem Cornwall added 23.
Benjamin commended Jamaica’s Miller for the way he bowled but said his players also made bad decisions at the crease.
“He just put the ball in the right areas and allowed us to make the mistakes and when I watched the performance, and I said it to the guys, that we needed to be more careful with our shot selection. A lot of guys got out playing across the line, lbw, instead of playing the ball straight and we had spoken about it, especially on a pitch where the bounce was not really through. I thought we didn’t occupy the crease long enough, we didn’t assess the situation properly and we were just playing some shots that were not called for at the time,” he said.
It was the eighth time that Miller has taken 10 wickets or more in a Regional Four-Day match, making him a shoo-in for the Player-of-the-Match award, and reinforced his place at the top of the list of the most successful bowlers in the modern era of the West Indies first-class championship (1966 onwards) with 434 scalps.
Jacobs ended the match with figures of 6-100 and formalised the result about 50 minutes before the scheduled tea break, when he trapped Sheeno Berridge lbw for a duck, as the Hurricanes made a mess of chasing 302 for victory.
Scorpions – fifth in the standings on 18.2 points prior to the match – earned 18.4 points comprising 12 for victory, three batting points, three bowling points and 0.4 pace bowling points. Hurricanes – previously third on 38.6 – gained just six from three bowling points, one batting point plus two pace bowling points.
Following a break in the tournament next weekend, Scorpions host Windward Islands Volcanoes at Sabina Park in Jamaica in the fifth round, at the same time that the Hurricanes welcome Trinidad and Tobago Red Force to Warner Park.