Barbados Pride got their 2019 Colonial Medical Insurance Regional Super50 campaign off to an excellent start, with an emphatic 75-run victory over the Jamaica Scorpions at Warner Park, Basseterre, St Kitts today.
Batting first, the Pride made 265 all out with Nicholas Kirton top-scoring with an 82-ball 55 that included five boundaries. He was ably assisted by Kyle Mayers, returning to the side after several seasons with the Windward Islands. Mayers made a run-a-ball 52 with three fours and two sixes. Ashley Nurse hammered three fours and three sixes in a quick-fire 38 off 21 balls and there were other useful contributions from captain Jonathan Carter with 33 and Tevyn Walcott with 32.
Ashley Nurse took four wickets to add to a quick-fire 38 in Barbados Pride’s innings. (FP)
Fast bowler Oshane Thomas, curiously omitted from the West Indies team on tour in India, was among the wickets taking 4 for 52 in eight pacy overs. Part-time off-spinner Andre McCarthy bowled his allotment of 10 overs and had the excellent returns of 4 for 41.
In response, the Scorpions capitulated to a disappointing 190 with McCarthy completing a terrific all-round showing but missing out on a century when he was eighth out for a dashing 83-ball 95 decorated with six fours and five thumping sixes. However, he suffered from lack of support at the other end with opener Aldane Thomas’ 41 the only other score of any note. Nurse carried on from his showing with the bat to be the leading bowler with figures of 4 for 26 in 8.5 miserly overs. Emerging quick Chemar Holder chipped in with 3 for 37 in eight overs. Slow left-arm 19-year-old spinner Joshua Bishop took two wickets, though a tad expensive in conceding 54 runs in eight overs.
Left-hander Kjorn Ottley and the right-handed Leniko Boucher got the innings off to a bright start with the former in particular looking quite assured. The two put on 36 before in the eighth over Boucher was caught by Nkrumah Bonner off the rapid Thomas for 25. The big Jamaican would strike again in the same over when he sent back Ottley for 25. However, captain Carter and Kirton steadied the innings with a fluent 63-run partnership that took the innings into the 24th over before Carter, trying to be positive against off-spinner Jamie Merchant, offered a catch to Thomas in the deep and it was accepted. Mayers joined the fray and played attractively as he and the more sedate Kirton added 51 in just 10 overs. Mayers played enterprisingly on both sides of the wicket but would lose Kirton whose vigil came to an end in the 34th over when he provided McCarthy with his first wicket to a catch to Merchant. Kirton’s dismissal left the score at 151 for 4.
Mayers and Walcott upped the momentum of the innings considerably in a partnership of 48 that came off just seven overs. However, Thomas’ return to the attack spelt the end for Mayers as he quickly had him caught and bowled, sending him back to the pavilion in the 42nd over with the score 199 for 5. The innings then concluded in a blaze as Nurse and Walcott added 45 for the sixth wicket in five overs of mayhem as the two clobbered the bowling around the small ground. The Pride’s innings ended on the final delivery when Holder was run-out.
Jamaica got off to a horrible start but unlike the Pride there were no consistent scores coming from their lower order. McCarthy kept the Scorpions’ interest in the game with his belligerent display but seven of Jamaica’s batsmen failed to get into double figures. Jamaica Scorpions started the 23rd over 107 for three but proceeded to lose their last seven wickets for 83 runs. Fast bowler Marquino Mindley’s seven, batting at number nine, was the highest score among the last seven batsmen to visit the middle.
