The two teams from the federation of St. Kitts and Nevis were unceremoniously knocked out at the semifinals stage of the LIMCA tournament.
Hopes of a much anticipated federation finals were dashed, when the two teams played poorly in their respective semifinal encounters.
At Liberta, defending champions Nevis, came up against a hitherto undefeated St. Thomas’ team.
Skipper Carl Tuckett of Nevis, won the toss and elected to bowl first.
The St. Thomas’ team was off to a rollicking start and after just five overs, were on 40 for no loss.
Add to that, the fact that veteran all-rounder Derrick Parry, pulled up during his first over and limped off the field, to take no further part in the match.
However, the Nevisian slow bowlers excelled and that included Merlin Liburd who had to complete Parry’s over, but bowled so well that he completed a mean spell of 4 overs.
The other slow bowlers in Patrick Newton, Virge Browne and Stuart Williams, also bowled tightly to restrict the St. Thomas team to 133 in their 20 allotted overs.
The Nevis bowlers managed 51 dot balls-an equivalent of almost 9 overs.
However, the Nevis team should have been forewarned that despite winning all of their previous games, this was indeed the highest score made by the St. Thomas’ team, even though, it may have been considered ‘easy pickings.’
Junior DUNCAN Mills and Merlin Liburd started well for Nevis in the first few overs but with the St. Thomas’ team opting to serve up a full menu of slow bowling, the early batsmen went into a shell and no fewer than 63 dot balls were counted against them. That is a little more than 10 of the 20 allotted overs!
By the time, the batsmen realized that the game was getting away from them and started to hit out, wickets started to tumble.
It was simply a case of ‘too little-too late’ and the St. Thomas’ team celebrated in a big way.
Nevis 92 for 5 in the end.
Summarized scores:
St. Thomas Masters: 133 for 5 in 20 overs:
McPherson Meade 61*;
Joseph Collins 24;
Hamish Anthony 22;
Junior Anthony 24-retired
(51 dot balls)
Stuart Williams 2 for 13;
Dennis Clarke;
Virgil Browne and Wendell Wallace 1 wicket each
Nevis Masters 96 for 6 from 20 overs:
Merlin Liburd 33;
Junior Mills 14;
Wendell Wallace 14*;
Bernette Thompson 10*
(63 dot balls)
Ivan Nicholas 3 for 20;
Earl Waldron,
McPherson Meade and Pierre Louis 1 wicket each
St. Thomas winning by 37 runs
At the All Saints ground, the St. Kitts team batted first, versus home team, Antigua and Barbuda and were off to a great start and looked set for a big score, on 88 for 2 from just 12 overs, when they suddenly imploded and the grand procession to and from the pavilion, commenced.
They got to 127, a total which the home team made small matters of.
Summarized scores: St. Kitts 125 all out:
Bernard island 44;
Phillip Webbe 19;
Junie Mitchum 17;
Kevin Hanley 17
Wilden Cornwall 3 for 19;
F. Francis 3 for 23;
H. Walsh 2 for 25;
I. Gore 1 for 17
Antigua and Barbuda 126 for 1:
A. Joseph 36;
Trish Phillip 48*;
Sylvester Joseph 29*
Junie Mitchum 1 for 25
Antigua and Barbuda winning by 9 wickets