The St. James U15 Cricket Team put on a show on Monday at Jarrett Park in the final round of the 32nd Kingston Wharves U15 Cricket Competition to comprehensively beat many-time national champion St. Elizabeth, and storm into the quarter final of the competition for the first time. St. James got valuable help from their female Bowler Samoya Samuels who took a hatrick to nab the last three St. Elizabeth wickets.
St. James won the toss and batted but could only muster 61 all out which included 20 extras. It was a slow going inning as it took 38.4 overs to be completed. Ryan Parris – 17 top scored with the bat while Sanjany Samuels – 14 contributed some valuable runs for his team. St. Elizabeth’s in-form bowler Eckoney Robinson bagged five for 15 in 10.4 overs while Jayden Shaw got two for seven in nine overs.
St. Elizabeth was no match for St. James in a rare collapse against a team they have always beaten. St. Elizabeth was skittled out for 25 in 14.3 overs even though they got significant help from 11 extras. Jaheim Bennett – 5 was the top batsman for St. Elizabeth. Female spin bowler Samoya Samuels had a good day with the ball, posting the best bowling stats for her team after getting the last three wickets of the match with the last three deliveries. She only needed 1.3 overs to close the St. Elizabeth inning. Jaden Williams and Desron Dunn also got three wickets each for six and seven runs respectively after sending down six overs each.
Cecil Fletcher, the St. James Cricket Association president was very pleased with his team’s performance and looks forward to a good match-up against multiple-time national champion Manchester in their quarter final match.
Richard Walters, manager for the St. Elizabeth team said that it was not the best year for the team who only won two of the four matches that they played in the preliminary round. He was not overly worried though as he said that the team will rise again. St. Elizabeth had always made it to the quarter final round of the competition.
Results in the other completed matches ont the day showed the Portland vs Kingston – rained out, Kensington getting the better of Lucas, Trelawny defeated Hanover who ended the competition without a win this year, St. Catherine Cricket Club beat KSACA (Kingston & St. Andrew Cricket Association), Manchester defeated St. Catherine Cricket Association (the only other team to lose all their matches). The Portland vs Kingston match was rained out while Portmore drew with Boys Town. The other match in the preliminary round which as rescheduled for Tuesday, Clarendon vs St. Ann match ended in a draw.
All four quarter final matches will be played on the 21st at four venues across the island.