By Neto Baptiste
Freetown were crowned champions of the ACB Caribbean-sponsored Parish League Sir Curtly Ambrose Limited Overs competition on Sunday, following a 49 runs triumph over favourites Police when they clashed in Freetown.
Batting first, Freetown was led by Jarel Phillip who top-scored with 49, Kief Baltimore with 44, and Cleton Payne with 31 as they posted 182 for nine in 34 overs. Lashorn Barnard picked up two for 27 while Lynton Africa had two for 35 bowling for the lawmen.
Police, in search of what would have been their third straight title of the Parish League season, were then bowled out for just 133 in 29 overs. Austin Richards Jr did the damage for Freetown with four wickets for 19 runs, while Phillip snatched three for 33 and W Williams had two for 12.
Captain of the Freetown team, Vance Nathaniel, said his players were determined to take home the top prize after having already loss back to back titles to the lawmen.
“We said to ourselves that they were not going to beat us again, and we came home and we practiced every day. The guys had the mental feeling they were going to do it this time because it is our time and we had to in this match because we were not going to take a whitewash or blackwash,” he said.
Police won both the Dave Joseph and Sir Richie Richardson titles so far this year, and are set to compete in the Sir Vivian Richards Thursday League final this week.
Nathaniel said he had sent an early warning to the lawmen.
“Well, I said to the Police team when they arrived that anything under 150 runs they were going under. I think we had a better team than Police; they beat us twice this year in two finals before and I thought we beat ourselves because we had a lot of better players than the Police team,” the skipper said.
Police and All Saints will clash in the final of the ACB Caribbean Parish League Sir Vivian Richards Thursday League, following dominating performances in the semifinal round of the cricket competition last Thursday.