By Dean “The Sportsman” Greenaway
Kenron Baptiste
Kenron Baptiste ripped through the BVI’s order for five wickets in helping St. Vincent improve to 4-1, in the BVICA’s Thirty 30 Nations League in Greenland on Sunday, during a 181-run victory.
After Damron Prince and Feris Pope opened with a 41-run partnership before Prince went lbw for 17, the 2-3 BVI’s charge at St. Vincent’s 300 run target took a nosedive, when they lost two more wickets for just seven runs, slumping to 48 for 3. Monty Butler and Jagnarine ‘Suga” Persaud had a short lived 22 run recovery partnership, ahead of Butler being dismissed by lbw for 24. Persaud then had a second partnership of 30 with Ricky Singh, before he was caught for 37. Then things went downhill fast as St. Vincent bowler Baptiste ripped the last five wickets off 11 balls to finish with 5 for 17 including two ducks, as the BVI were bowled out for 119 in 12.1 overs. Baptiste was named Man of the Match.
St. Vincent used an 85-run fourth wicket partnership between Caswell Morris and Austin McDowall after a 3 for 73 start before Morris was caught by Persaud for 47, to rebuild their innings after Joel Williams opened with a useful 34. McDowall then had a second partnership of 115 runs with Curtley Peters, before McTair James caught Peters for 58. McDowall went on to a season’s best knock of 99 not out, laying the foundation for St. Vincent’s 300 for 5 in 24 overs.
Persaud took 2 for 29, bringing him into a five-way tie in the league with eight wickets, while Vincent Farley picked up his first 2 wickets for 50.
“We failed in all three departments today,” BVI Captain Vishal Bharat said. “We bowled badly. We fielded badly, we gave away about 30 to 40 runs, dropped catches as well, it was a reflection of everything. The batting was the same. In all three departments we failed and when a team fails in all three departments, they expect to lose.”
St. Vincent Captain Imran Smith said that his team has been batting really well. One area that he wanted his team to improve on was fielding and field setting and said that they did well, which led to a faster turnover in the overs and rotation.
“We started off batting well, we were 45 in the fourth over, then lost two wickets but the partnership between Morris and McDowall—who had 99 and batted out to the end—and we built in the middle overs with a run rate of 12+ and that was enough to take us to 300.”
After beating defending champs Guyana last week via the Duckworth-Lewis scoring system, Smith expects to meet them in the final in two weeks. “Guyana is not going to be easy, they will be coming in a revenge manner to us because they would want to win, as we would want to win,” he said. “Once we get fit, play proper cricket, we should be fine.”
During the morning game, Guyana middle order batsman Dhanpaul Chrisnanand had a 55-run sixth wicket partnership with Jieunick Mingo and a second one of 47 with Carl Fraser for the ninth wicket, in leading them to 205 in 23.3 overs. He was caught by Morris, for 81. Keon DeJesus had a supporting 30, as Guyana, 3-1, won by 66 runs, after restricting Jamaica, 2-3, to 139 in 23.5 overs.
Jamaican bowler Kelvin Lewis, who missed last week’s game against the BVI, grabbed 3 for 47 to tie St. Vincent’s Baptiste for the lead with 12. Jerome Morris bagged 4 for 38, bringing his wicket total into 4-way-5th place tie with six.
