By Neto Baptiste
Batting all-rounder Kofi James is confident that his Liberta Blackhawks squad will be ready both physically and mentally for Sunday’s final in the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association (ABCA) Super40 competition.
Defending champions Liberta Blackhawks are slated to take on the New Winthorpes Lions who advanced to their first cricket final in a decade after beating Jennings Tigers by four wickets in Sunday’s semifinal clash.
James, the competition’s leading scorer with 425 runs in nine innings, said that having been defeated by New Winthorpes in the preliminary round just two weeks ago has not dampened the Blackhawks’ spirits.
“Blackhawks play hard cricket and one loss shouldn’t hamper us going forward in our preparations. We stay strong, we stay positive all the time and we believe in ourselves, so mentally we are in a good space. We know that we are humans and we will lose a game, but it is just for us to go back to the drawing board, see what they did why they beat us and try to overcome that,” he said.
Blackhawks had beaten Rising Sun Spartans by eight wickets in Saturday’s other semifinal clash with James hitting a top score of 46 and veteran Wilden “Polo” Cornwall adding 32 as they successfully chased 85 for victory.
“We got off to a pretty good start and batting with Polo is always easy for me, to be hones,t because he hits the ball well. So even though I got most of the runs, just watching him bat, being a spectator at the non-striker’s end is always good and the runs will always come comfortably as long as he’s out there batting,” James said.
The Leeward Islands player also touted the team’s experienced bowling attack.
“We go out there to play hard cricket and we go with our bowling plans. The bowlers went out there and executed and I wouldn’t say it was easy, but when you do the correct things and teams make mistakes then you will have some of these games when you get them out cheaply. Everybody is capable of getting wickets and you would see that more often in a team like Liberta with a lot of bowlers capable of getting wickets. Rahkeem Cornwall barely bowled an over and he got a wicket so that is the quality and the skillset that we have,” he said.
Sunday’s final will e held in Liberta while Saturday’s semifinal clash will be held at Jennings. Both matches will bowl off at 11am.
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