Benjamin Takes Solace In Hurricanes Improvement

Coach of the Leeward Islands Hurricanes, Reginald Benjamin, said he is taking the positives out of his team’s “improved” showing in this year’s Super50 cricket tournament.
The Barbados Pride brushed the Leeward Islands Hurricanes aside on Thursday, losing by 110 runs at the Coolidge Cricket Ground (CCG) here in the second semifinals.
The Jamaica Scorpions and Barbados will clash in Saturday’s finals starting at 1:30pm.
Benjamin acknowledged there is still some work to be done but said his team’s overall play has improved.
“They’re a lot of people who think we are not progressing, but you are going to get the negatives and such so it really doesn’t bother me because I am a person that will work towards whatever I am doing. We are a better fielding team, a betting bowling team, we have some work to do in the batting and understanding the game when it’s being played,” he said.
“Strike rotation is a problem and I noticed it more in this 50 overs tournament than the 4 Day so we are going to work on that. I haven’t seen the official list but I am happy for Mr. Powell in getting back to the West Indies team,” he added.
Pride, winning the toss and batting first, rattled up 314 for seven off their 50 overs, with the right-handed Shai Hope gathering a career-best 125 from 108 deliveries.
Opener Kraigg Brathwaite weighed in with 54, captain Jason Holder stroked a breezy 26-ball unbeaten 42 while Roston Chase chipped in with 31 and big-hitting all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite, 27.
Benjamin said they gave up too many runs against a team with a star-studded batting line-up. 
“The players are there but on the execution part of it, we fell short in the critical games and that’s one area [where] I think we went wrong and yesterday [Thursday] there was a period where we gave away 50 runs in about three overs or something like that and it’s hard to chase 300 against a team like Barbados with such good bowling,” he said. 
In their turn at the crease, Hurricanes never looked like seriously challenging their target once they lost talismanic captain Kieran Powell cheaply, and were dismissed for a disappointing 204 off 47.3 overs.
Opener Montcin Hodge top-scored with 63, Jeremiah Louis hit a fluent unbeaten 41 off 32 deliveries while Rahkeem Cornwall chipped in with 30.
The plan, Benjamin said, was to get a partnership going and adjust as the innings progressed.
“That was one of the plans, let’s just start normal, let’s get a good partnership going and as the game
goes on we could always access and move players up the order and stuff but unfortunately, I thin lost too many wickets too soon and there were no real partnerships so that’s the way I saw It last night,” the Antiguan said.
The chief architects of the Hurricanes demise were off-spinner Ashley Nurse (3-37) and seamer Carlos Brathwaite (3-56) who finished with three wickets apiece while fast bowler Kemar Roach picked up for two 36.
Hope finished the innings with seven dismissals – four catches and three stumpings – to erase the regional 50-overs record of six dismissals set by Guyana’s Sheik Mohammed against Barbados at Kensington Oval back in 1992.
The 23-year-old also wrote himself into the List A record books, becoming the first wicketkeeper to score a hundred and take seven dismissals in a match.