Sheldon Cotterell disarmed the Barbados Tridents on Tuesday night to set up a crucial victory for the Antigua Hawksbills, and that’s no joke, seeing that Cotterell
Sheldon Cotterell disarmed the Barbados Tridents on Tuesday night to set up a crucial victory for the Antigua Hawksbills, and that’s no joke, seeing that Cotterell
is part of the Jamaican Defence Force. Ideally, it was a stern performance from the big man who has been gaining fans along the way. He seemed to have just carried on from the Queen’s Park Oval where he impressed against the T&T Red Steel.
His spell of 4-0-20-4 led the home team to chase a meagre target of 98 runs to win. It can be said the Antigua Hawksbills made more work of their target than it looked like it required at the halfway stage. The first and most important result on the night was a victory for the hosts. Then they could have looked at Net Run Rate but Johnson Charles seemed to look at the latter first. In the first over, he smashed Shakib Al Hasan for 10 from two balls after getting off the mark with a couple. He seemed in a rush, but Kieran Powell was not on the same wavelength. Off the last ball, Charles called through for a quick single but was denied by Powell. It was too late. He was already halfway down the track and Pollard’s diving stop at short cover effected the run out.
Rakheem Cornwall was sent to replace Charles, perhaps in an effort to keep things moving but it stalled for the Hawksbills. Midway through the Powerplay, they lost Cornwall for just 4. Powell at the other end batted slowly, waiting for bad deliveries to put away. Shoaib Malik, who would eventually end with sublime figures of 4-2-3-1, bowled 22 dot balls, some 12 of them to Powell, before trapping him Leg Before. By that time the Powerplay had ended and the Hawksbills were 46/3.
Orlando Peters provided the stability the Hawksbills were looking for. Not only did he keep the strike turning over but he also hit boundaries at regular intervals. He had come in at 23/2 and taken the score to 65/4, scoring 31 runs from 22 balls. He hit two fours and three sixes. With half the innings left, the Hawksbills still had a comfortable equation but they needed a partnership to take the Tridents out of the game. Skipper Marlon Samuels and Ben Rohrer provided that partnership. Together, they put on 18 runs. It might seem like a small partnership but it was required at the stage to stop the flow of wickets. They batted slowly, with the runs coming from 37 balls, but at the end of it, they needed just 15 runs when Rohrer was out.
It was needless as well as the Australian walked out of his crease to Shakib, only to miss the ball, and yet, it could have still been a close game when Devon Thomas joined his skipper. Emrit had been brought into the attack at a late stage. With 13 runs needed from the last three overs, Emrit was bowling a quite good over. His last ball let him down though. Short and wide, Samuels cut it away for four. Pollard and Samuels enjoyed some West Indian banter thereafter, but both knew the writing was on the wall.
That writing was mostly set up by Jamaican left-arm quickie, Cotterell. Since the start of the season, he’s been catching a few eyes, so much so he was named part of West Indies A’s series against visiting Sri Lanka A before the LCPL. He broke the back of the Tridents batting, removing both openers in his first two overs. Both Dwayne Smith and Jonathan Carter were gone with 25 runs on the board. Three deliveries after getting Carter in his second over, he got Shakib, who cut a lifter straight down to Kemar Roach at third man. He saluted after every wicket, reminding his fellow Jamaican Defence Force soldiers they were on his mind even as he starred in front of millions. Before the Powerplay ended, Roach sprung to life, bowling Pollard with a quick, inward delivery. The Tridents were in deep trouble at 26/4.
Shoaib Malik and Raymon Reifer tried to engineer a partnership, but that was cut short by the brilliance of Cotterell once again, not with the ball this time but in the field. Malik pulled a short delivery from Samuels powerfully to the right of Cotterell at square-leg. It was supposed to go for four but somehow the soldier dived to his right and plucked it out. It was a jaw-dropping catch, and Cotterell’s fine night continued.
Reifer stuck around for the Tridents, trying to build an innings. He was slow, but he couldn’t afford to be any different. Together with Umar Akmal, he put on 38 vital runs. It came off 40 balls. When Akmal was bowled by Roach in the 17th over, the Tridents’ batting withered away. They lost a wicket an over thereafter. Cotterell returned in the penultimate over of the innings to complete his spell. He bowled Ashley Nurse to get his fourth wicket. Devendra Bishoo paddled swept his final delivery for four, but not even that could have taken away from the great job Cotterell had done for his team.
Thankfully for the Hawksbills, he wasn’t required to be the hero with the bat as well, but if he was, from the evidence against the Red Steel, he’s no mug. Peters picked up the Limacol Super Six award and the Digicel 4G Fastest Scorer. Deservedly, Cotterell was named the Man of the Match, and gave the world one last salute for the night at the presentation. However, from what was seen on Tuesday night, looks like Cotterell will be saluting a lot more over the next few years.
Courtesy: CPL T20.COM
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