By Neto Baptiste
Jennings handed Rising Sun Spartans their first defeat of the ongoing 10 Splash Cricket tournament on Tuesday, after recording a nail-biting four runs victory in the feature match of a double-header at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground.
Despite the victory, however, Jennings finished just outside of the required top two teams that will advance to the next round of the tournament from Zone One.
Coach of the Jennings team, Glen Miller, said that in spite of the victory he is not totally satisfied with the performance, adding that overall, his young squad may have been the best team in the tournament.
“Things did not go well in the batting because we did not get the score we were looking for because we were looking for about 85 but we told ourselves that whatsoever it is, we are going to defend it. I look at that tournament and I think we were the best team in the tournament and you may say that hey, Miller you lost and you’re out and fine. We lost against Liberta and I blamed myself as the coach because there were certain things we were supposed to do and we did not do. It is unfortunate that we are out but we feel pleased about our performances,” he said.
Put in to bat after Spartans won the toss, Jennings raised 54 for seven in their allotted 10 overs with their best effort coming from Orlando Peters who made 16. Isiah Burney and Dean Williams were the pick of the bowlers for Spartans as they both claimed two wickets.
Spartans, who had won three straight leading into Tuesday’s clash, faltered in their chase and fell short at 50 for six in their 10 overs. Tassillo Allen led the unsuccessful fight with 15 runs from 15 deliveries. Former Leeward Islands player, Peters, was the best bowler on show for Jennings, bagging two wickets for just seven runs in his two overs.
Meanwhile, in Tuesday’s opening contest, PIC Liberta Blackhawks made light work Massy United Combined Schools to win by eight wickets and secure their place in the final round of the competition.
After winning the toss and opting to bat, Schools posted 60 for six their allotted 10 overs with a top knock of 16 coming from Michael Greaves.
J Robinson and Miandre James were the pick of the bowlers for Blackhawks, claiming three and two wickets respectively.
Blackhawks then successfully chased down their target with four overs to spare, reaching 61 for two in six overs. It took them only 25 minutes to get the job done. Kofi James led the charge with 36 runs from 19 balls, hitting two sixes and three fours in the process. Avier Christian added 14 runs to the effort.
Captain of the Blackhawks team Kofi James, believes the tournament will be tougher going forward from a mental standpoint but said his players are prepared for the task at hand.
“I, as a captain, have also been to quite a few games in this tournament and I have been watching a lot of the teams and thinking about my strategies early, and I am sure my teammates have been doing the same thing, too. It is more of a mental thing now because we have already seen a lot of the teams and know what we have to work on so it’s about going in there now and putting in our best and working on the areas we need to improve on,” he said. The results mean that both Spartans and Blackhawks advances from Zone. The tournament is expected to climax on Sunday.