January 14th, 2016 -- The Leeward Islands Hurricanes earned their first win of the NAGICO Super 50 tournament with a 14-run defeat of the Combined Campuses and Colleges at the St. Pauls Recreational Grounds in St. Kitts on Wednesday. Nkrumah Bonner knocked a brilliant 79, while Montcin Hodge 66 to help the Hurricanes set 242 in the first innings. Chasing 243 to win, the Marooners could only mustered 228 all out with balls remaining, giving the Hurricanes their first win of the tournament and 6 points on the points table. Vikash Mohan of the Marooners also scored 79 runs but this was not enough to assure the much needed win for his team.
The Hurricanes seemingly were not seeing the game through in the tail end of the match, as the Marooners crossed the 200-run mark. Sloppy fielding and several misfield and bad throws gave the Marooners two runs for every possibly one run play and sometimes even where runs should not have scored. But the bowling of Rakheem Cornwall and Chesney Hughes of the Hurricanes brought the team back in the game. Taking three quick wickets by Cornwall and Daron Cruickshank assured victory for the Hurricanes. The Marooners realizing the game was slipping away attempted runs at every opportunity, which placed them under enormous pressure for run outs and losing wickets. The pressure took its toll and the Hurricanes bagged their first win.
Hurricanes coach Reginald Benjamin, speaking about his team’s first win of the tournament, said the win was good not just for the team but for the people of the Leeward Islands. “The batting performed well, the bowling performed well, the fielding is still in works but we execute and it’s good to have a win not only for me but the people of the Leeward Islands,” he said. “We have the potential it’s just to execute.”
Acknowledging that the fielding needed some more work, the coach said this was something they would be looking to fine tune for their next match against the Guyana Jaguars on Friday in St. Pauls. “The guys need to be a little more sharper off the boundary…one day cricket fielding is just as important like any other department and we took good catches today,” he said.
Meanwhile Marooners Captain Chadwick Walton believed the bowling was well and praise Mohan for his contribution but felt too many runs were scored by the Hurricanes. “We still have to work on our all-round game so I don’t think we will be working on anything specially. Every time we have training sessions we try to work on everything. It’s a young team so we still need to be strong in all departments,” he said. The Marooners next fact the Windward Volcanoes in St. Paul’s on Friday at 9:00am.
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