BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (CMC):COACH OF the Jamaica Under-19 cricket team, André Coley, says their first ever capture of the regional youth limited overs title Saturday is some consolation for missing out on the three-day target.
The Jamaicans handsomely defeated Guyana by eight wickets in the final of the TCL Group West Indies Under-19 Challenge Limited Overs Series at Warner Park on Saturday to land the title.
"I am delighted that all the hard work put in by the coaching staff and the players in particular has paid off in the long run. They fully deserve this," a beaming Coley said.
"We badly wanted to win the three-day tournament as we thought that we had one of the better teams in the competition. When this did not materialise, it just made the entire team more determined to do well in the limited overs competition," the former Jamaica Under-19 and senior wicketkeeper continued.
Solid victory
Coley had special praise for his opening batsmen Horace Miller and Christie Jones, who set up the victory with a solid, near double-hundred first-wicket stand.
Miller thumped a shot-filled 133 off 115 balls with 14 fours and eight sixes and Jones stroked an attractive 62 with four fours and a six.
The two shared in a record first-wicket stand of 188 runs and had provided good starts at the top of the Jamaican innings in most of the previous matches.
"Just last night I had a special chat with Horace (Miller). He had been getting fairly good starts, but had failed to convert to a huge innings. I asked him to hit the ball a little straighter, especially when he was going over the top.
"If you assess his innings today, you would realise that all of his sixes were in the 'V'. He got them down at long-off and long-on. The cross-batted strokes that he played were not airborne for long periods," Coley explained.
Chasing Guyana's 225 all out off 50 overs, Jamaica raced to 229 for two off just 40.5 overs, to seal an emphatic victory.
When asked to give his impressions of the 20 players announced for the West Indies Under-19 squad, Coley said that he feels it is a group of players that has lots of talent and they were quite capable of making the region proud in Malaysia for the 2008 Under-19 World Cup.
Great performance
"The majority of the players selected picked themselves by performing well in either the three-day tournament or the limited-overs tournament. There were some who did well in both versions of the game.
"To my mind, if there is anyone who might have been a bit hard done, it was Jamie Merchant. He had two half centuries batting down the order for us and he picked up wickets consistently with his off spin.
"The majority of spinners named bowl leg breaks. Merchant would have added a bit of variety to the attack. All in all, however, the selectors did a good job," Coley concluded.
WEST INDIES U-19 SQUAD: Steven Jacobs, Shamarh Brooks, Adrian Barath, Daren Bravo, Veerasammy Permaul, Devon Thomas, Chesney Hughes, Kelbert Walters, Kieron Powell, André Creary, Rajendra Chandrika, Nkruma Bonnar, Jason Dawes, Dawnley Grant, Linden Lawrence, Rashidi Boucher, Delorn Johnson, Horace Miller, Shacoya Thomas, Kyle Corbin.
