Rain ruins SVG’s U-19 cricket title odds

Heavy rains in Portsmouth, Dominica, last Thursday and Friday, thwarted St Vincent and the Grenadines’ (SVG) chances of lifting the 2012 Windward Islands Under-19 Cricket title.{{more}}

The Vincentians had to settle for the runner-up spot, behind Grenada, as their match against St Lucia ended in a no-decision.

There was limited play on day one of the match, with St Lucia posting 95 without loss.

The entire second day was rained out.

In the other encounter, Grenada gained first innings points over Dominica.

Dominica, batting first, was dismissed for 99 while Grenada responded with 186. Dominica made 179 in their second innings.

Coach of the SVG team Deighton Butler was pleased with his team’s efforts.

“St Vincent and the Grenadines performed generally well in the limited opportunity they had to play. We were blighted by the weather just like last year,” he told SEARCHLIGHT last Sunday night at the E.T. Joshua Airport, shortly after the team arrived, minus the four selectees to the Windwards squad.

Butler was especially pleased with their showing against the host.

“We were extremely clinical against Dominica, in every department,” he stated with a smile.

In that match SVG scored 252 in their only innings, which turned out to be the highest team aggregate in the tournament.

Butler identified the team’s fielding as the highlight of their sojourn in Dominica.

“… you saw eleven guys who were competing against each other in the field and the standard of fielding was brilliant,” he said.

He stated that several Dominicans opined that SVG was the superior team in the tournament.

Kadier Nedd, captain of the SVG outfit also expressed similar sentiments.

“We played very positive cricket, although we only had a limited number of days to play. In fact, we only got to play one and a half games out of three,” Nedd said.

He said SVG would have won, had the tournament run its full course.

The first match between SVG and Grenada, which was also affected by rain, ended in a no-decision.

In their full match against Dominica, the Vincentians won by an innings.

Grenada finished the tournament with 22 points, SVG with 20 points, St Lucia was third with 10 points, and Dominica was last, with 6 points.

The Most Valuable Players for the respective teams were Vincentian Kenneth Dembar, Grenadian Roland Cato, St Lucian Tariq Gabriel and Dominican Deon Benjamin.

The overall tournament MVP was Dominican Brian Neley, who captured 15 wickets. (RT)