January 18th, 2016 -- The Windward Volcanoes confirmed their semi-final berth in the 2016 NAGICO Super 50 tournament slated for Trinidad and Tobago this week with a narrow 5 run win over the Leeward Islands Hurricanes at the St. Pauls Recreation Grounds in St. Kitts. Rain reduced play to 49 overs but the Volcanoes posted a modest 243 runs. As has been the case in the last three matches, the openers failed to fire and it was left to middle order batsman Sunil Ambris to anchor things with a fitting 74 runs.
Andre Fletcher made 42 and Kyle Mayers was not out on 30. In response the Leeward Hurricanes were 237 for 9. Orlando Peters hit a cracking 77 runs, Nkrumah Bonner 35 and Sherwin Peters 32. Volcanoes' Delorn Johnson nabbed three wickets for 37 and Mervin Matthew 2 for 56 while Daron Cruickshank of the Hurricanes had 2 for 37 in 5 overs.
Despite the loss, this was one of the more improved performances of the Hurricanes that have only won a match in the tournament. For Coach Reginald Benjamin, it showed the team's continued improvement as the tournament progressed. "The more you watch the team plays you see some sort of improvement. The result we were looking for is not coming now but it will come and I am satisfied with this performance today,” he said.
Going forward, Coach Benjamin is looking to build on the performance of the team throughout the tournament into the Regional Four-Day Competition which gets underway after the NAGICO Super 50. "We are going to do match awareness because as you see most of our guys got out playing shots that were not warranted,” he said.
Meanwhile for Coach Ian Allen of the Windward Volcanoes, he is pleased his team is into the semi-final round but knows there is work to be done as the tournament gets harder. "Much improved performance all round by the team,” he said considering their devastating 91 run loss to the CCC Marooners on Friday at the Warner Park. He conceded that the batting needs to improve if the team is going to have any measure of success in Trinidad.
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