January 12th, 2016 -- The Windward Volcanoes snatch victory from the jaws of defeat Monday night in their NAGICO Super 50 match against the home side Leeward Islands Hurricanes winning by a wicket. Chasing 239 from 50 overs to win, the Volcanoes scored 242 for 9 but were limping at one stage in the middle of the innings. It seemed the Hurricanes had this one in the bag; however, West Indies batsman Shane Shillingford came at number 6 and produced a quick fire 27, hitting sixes and fours when needed to set the Warner Park cricket stadium in Basseterre, St. Kitts alight with a performance that assured victory.
The Volcanoes at one point needed as much as 69 runs from eight overs to win. Shillingford, supported by Kyle Meyers saw to it that by the 47th over, the Volcanoes only needed 10 runs. Even after Shillingford went in the penultimate over and with no wicket in hand, Mayers and incoming batsman Delorn Johnson held their nerves to see out the match, winning by a wicket. Opener Johnson Charles recorded a fantastic 72 runs while Mayers was not out on 55. For the Hurricanes Jacques Taylor picked up 3 wickets for 27 in just 4 overs, a remarkable economy rate, while Rakheem Cornwall and Nkrumah Bonner each picked up two wickets for 34 and 30 runs respectively.
The Hurricanes will certainly be kicking themselves for throwing this match away, having almost assured of victory. Pundits and commentators blame the captain Jahmar Hamilton for poor placement of players on the field, but many would allude this loss to several drop catches and poor fielding. Additionally, the line and length of the bowling at times left a lot to be desired, which led to 14 extras. Even a no ball in the penultimate over, forcing a free hit was a sign of poor mental strength by the Hurricanes, at a time when they needed to register their first win of the tournament. Despite the painful loss, Montcin Hodge made a case to be in the team with 74 runs, supported by Daron Cruickshank on 64.
Coach Reginald Benjamin of the Hurricanes was obviously very dejected by the team’s performance and the failure to get the win when it seemed certain. “Most things in the end went wrong, I think bowling changes were wrong. The line and length that we did in training they got away from it and basically we made too many errors in the field; vital drop catches…you not going to win game playing that poor level of cricket,” Coach Benjamin said.
Unlike the pundits who laid the blame at the feet of Captain Hamilton, Coach Benjamin assessed otherwise. “The position was ok because we have a certain line that we bowled to for that position but the bowlers just didn’t bowl that line,” Coach Benjamin said.
Meanwhile, Volcanoes coach Ian Allen was a bit more reflective, though while happy for the win knew his team did not play entirely well, especially with the batting. “I think we just had to keep wickets in hand coming down to the 35th, 40th over…we basically lost too much wickets in the middle overs when you had a set batsman there,” he said. Coach Allen commended Shane Shillingford and Mayers for anchoring the batting and knows there is a lot of work to do ahead of Wednesday’s next match versus the Guyana Jaguars.
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