St. Elizabeth was crowned champion of the 25th Kingston Wharves Under 15 Cricket Competition at Monday’s final at the Kensington Cricket Club in Kingston after defeating Kingston in a nail biting one run win.
Kingston who was getting to the final for the first time ever compared to St. Elizabeth’s 5th time, won the toss but gave up the advantage to the eventual champions who posted a moderate 124 all out in the 32nd over with Orane Thompson 24 and Romario 19 contributing to the total. Five players got into double figures but none carried on to get a big score. The majority of the wickets went to Danvil Wollaston 4 for 34, Akeem Malcolm 3 for 15 and Matthew Comrie 2 for 14.
St. Elizabeth started with a comfortable 45 on the board before the first wicket fell but then lost wickets at regular intervals with the final two on 124. Osmond Gayle who made the only century of the competition in last Friday’s semi final against Westmoreland contributed just 2 runs as the team was helped by a generous 26 extras.
At that point Kingston thought that they had a good chance to win the title. They however, started poorly losing their first 2 wickets for 4 runs but steadied the inning at lunch time on 58 for 4. They came back but lost focus and wickets to close the inning at 123 in the 44th over after St. Elizabeth started to tighten the screws on them with some good bowling that restricted the batsmen in a pressure situation. As they got closer to the total the tension could be felt on the sidelines with coaches, managers, supporters, sponsor representatives, media and just about everyone watching keenly to see which team would break under the pressure. At the end St. Elizabeth came out the winner.
Mark Todd 39, top scored with captain Okachie Brown 31 being the only other batsman to get into double figures. The wickets went to Roberto Simpson 3 for 39, Osmond Gayle 2 for 12 and Geovanni Townsend 2 for 18.
Special awards went to Man of the Final – Danvil Wollaston who bagged 4 for 32, MVP for Kingston – Elian Emmanuel – he got 14 wickets including 2 five-wicket hauls, MVP for St. Elizabeth – Roberto Simpson who made 194 runs and got 14 wickets. Two new awards were introduced by Kingston Wharves to benefit the top coach and the top manager. They were taken by Tedroy Bromfield and Richard Walters respectively of St. Elizabeth. Two bursaries of $50,000 each were announced by Mr. Grantley Stephenson of Kingston Wharves to go to the top bowler and the top batsman however they have not been named as yet.
Mr. Stephenson, the chairman and CEO of Kingston Wharves who spoke at the awards function expressed his pleasure at the milestone staging (25th) of the competition which is the longest sponsored cricket competition in Jamaica, said that they would continue to sponsor it as long as the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) wanted them to do so. He referred to the long list of players who have come out of it including Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Wavell Hinds, Ramaal Lewis (WI U19 captain) while saying that it was money well spent.
Fritz Harris, secretary of the JCA thanked Kingston Wharves for their continued sponsorship while saying that in recent times almost every national representative has passed through the Kingston Wharves U15 Cricket Competition and it is very important to the JCA to have Kingston Wharves on board as a partner.
Marlon Ramdeen manger for Kingston was naturally disappointed to come so close and lose but says that they have some players who will return next year to help the team to go after the championship again.
A happy Richard Walters, manager of St. Elizabeth, was pleased with his team’s performance in a nail biting finish. He praised his team for their fight in the low scoring match while he commended Kingston Wharves for their support for the cricket over many years while also thanking them for his special award as a top manager. Additionally he singled out several players for their performance this year. They are Roberto Simpson – captain and MVP in final, Osmond Gayle – the only century maker, Romario Moxam, Gregory Greaves and Geovanni Townsend. He looks forward to defending the title next year.
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