By Neto Baptiste
Police captured their third Parish League title for the year on Thursday when they defeated All Saints by 35 runs to claim the ACB Caribbean Parish League Sir Vivian Richards Thursday League trophy.
Winning the toss and opting to bat at the Police Recreation Grounds, the lawmen amassed 161 for six in 26 overs with Damian Lowenfield hitting a top score of 44. Damon Valentine added 34 to the effort with Malique Gerald with 32 and Jeron Jones with 28 also making their contributions. Demetri Lucas was the pick of the bowlers for All Saints with two for 27.
All Saints were then bowled out for 126 in 24.1 overs with their best effort of 64 coming from Michael Dover.
Bowling for Police, Lynton Africa and Lashorn Barnarde both claimed three wickets with Africa picking up three for 28 and Barnard taking three for 34. There were good spells from Orandel Boston (2/13) and Damon Valentine (2/24) as well as they both picked up two wickets.
Captain of the Police team, Derek Mourillon, said that after posting just a little over 160, he felt comfortable that they could defend the total with some degree of ease.
“At the start of the game, if you’d asked me that I would have said no, but as the game progressed based on how the pitch was playing, and it took the spin, I knew that anything above 150 would have been a challenge,” he said.
The batsman chalked up the team’s success this season to all-round dedication and teamwork.
“Teamwork, and that’s the honest truth, and when one may not be on their game on that particular day, then others step in so basically we support each other and everyone backs up the other person. We have quite a few guys with some cricketing talent and most of the guys like a challenge, and in the training actually, I would set challenges for bowlers and for batsmen,” he said.
Police previously won the Dave Joseph and Sir Richie Richardson titles, but were defeated by Freetown in the final of the ACB Caribbean Parish League Sir Curtly Ambrose Limited Overs Competition last weekend.