Kingstown, St. Vincent And The Grenadines – Barbados, Windward Islands and Guyana all recorded comfortable victories to conclude action in round three of the CWI Under-19 Championship on Thursday.
At Arnos Vale Sports complex, Barbados were led once again by their quick bowlers, particularly Matthew Forde who clinched 4-15 to follow up his 5-24 versus Guyana in round two.
This was the cornerstone of their current top of the table winning performance, as they routed Jamaica for 132 and chased down the target with relative ease.
Barbados coach, Sherwin Campbell:
“We are feeling pretty good and happy to win two out of two games so far. Each game is important and obviously they are areas we can improve on particularly getting our batting clicking as a unit”, said the former West Indies opener. He continued: “Matthew (Forde) is bowling very well at the moment with good control and is a big plus for us currently with the early wickets he is taking.
The pitches in St Vincent are good cricket wickets, once you do your fundamentals as a batsman and bowler you will reap rewards.”
On the Windward side of the Island at Park Hill, home team Windward Islands produced a solid all-round effort to topple Trinidad and Tobago who were on a high following their pulsating one-run victory over Jamaica in round two.
Windward Islands Coach, Clifford Thomas:
“It was a real confidence boosting win.Trinidad have won many regional youth titles and it will put us in good stead for our next encounter against Barbados who have started the tournament well.
Captain Kimani Melius and Teddy Bishop who was leading run scorer in recent Under-17 competition in Trinidad, coming into the tournament were always going to be key to our batting and they stepped up crucially.
That solid total gave our off-spinner Malakai Xavier enough to bowl at. So basically the guys executed almost perfectly to our game plan.”
Finally on the Leeward side of the Island at Cumberland, defending champions Guyana recovered from their round two loss to Barbados to secure a comprehensive over bottom of the table Leeward Islands.
Summarized Scores:
At Arnos Vale: Barbados beat Jamaica five wickets.
JAMAICA 132 off 38 overs (Michael Thompson 43, Matthew Comerie 41; Matthew Forde 4-15)
BARBADOS 133 for five off 27.2 overs (Nyeem Young 42 not out, Antonio Morris 25, Kevin Wickham 22 not out)
At Park Hill: Windwards beat T&T by 69 runs.
WINDWARD ISLANDS 203 for seven off 50 overs (Kimani Melius 59, Teddy Bishop 53, Tahj Tavernier 26; Avinash Mahabirsingh 2-12, Nicholas Ali 2-26)
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO 134 off 40.4 overs (Rivaldo Ramlogan 22, Ronaldo Forester 22; Malakai Xavier 5-26, Tijourn Pope 3-27)
At Cumberland: Guyana beat Leewards by 119 runs.
GUYANA 176 off 49.1 overs (Sachin Singh 51, Kevlon Anderson 42, Junior Sinclair 28; Uri Smith 5-19, Elroy Francis 3-21)
LEEWARD ISLANDS 57 off 27.5 overs (Kevlon Anderson 3-18, Qumar Torrington 3-18)
Note for Editors:The West Indies “Rising Stars” Under 19 Championship is part of the new West Indies Future Stars Programme developing the West Indies next generation of cricketers. This programme stretches from the “Future Stars” of secondary school cricket through to the “Rising Stars” of Under 15 to Under 19 age group cricket at both regional and international level for boys and girls. At the end of the Rising Stars Under 19 Championship, 24 players will be selected to stay on for three “Best vs the Best” additional games, which Cricket West Indies will use to narrow down the West Indies U19 squad for more development activities later in the year as we build to the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in South Africa in 2020.
–CWI
