ARNOS VALE, St. Vincent--St. Maarten U19 cricketers featured prominently for the Leeward Islands in a drawn 2-day match against their Barbadian counterparts at the Arnos Vale Stadium in St. Vincent. Cricket West Indies originally planned that the regional U19 tournament would comprise three-day matches among Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Windward Islands, and Trinidad and Tobago.
However, Hurricane Beryl forced the tournament to be rescheduled to two-day matches among the same six teams. The contest between the Leeward Islands and Barbados featured a record five players from St. Maarten: Davenand Singh, Michael Palmer, Tyanick Honore, Nathan Edward, and Israel Morton. It is the first time St. Maarten has had five players on any Leeward Islands team, beating the 2022 record of four players on that year’s U19 team that won the three-day championship. On Sunday, Leeward Islands was inserted to bat first. They posted a below par 90 but fought tooth and nail to bowl out their opponent for 81. Palmer turned up the heat with an aggressive display of fast bowling that stunned the Bajans. He collected the first three wickets to dent the response. From 21 for three in the sixth over, the key in batsmen Joshua Dorne for five off 20 balls, Kyle Jordan two off seven balls and Achilles Browne for nought were back in the pavilion. Leg-spinner Micah Mc Kenzie from then ripped through the middle order with three quick wickets to further upend the reply. Palmer got his fourth wicket when he trapped the opposing Captain Nathan Sealy leg before wicket (lbw) for one. Palmer, with four for 38 off eight overs, and Mc Kenzie, with six for 20 off 8.1 overs, accounted for all 10 wickets for the batting team. When the Leeward Islands first batted, Tyanick Honore from St. Maarten top scored with a composed 24 off 73 balls (3 fours). Morton scored five, Singh scored four and Palmer and Edward did not score a run. The Leewards led by nine runs in the first innings. In the second inning, Honore again top scored with a masterful 81 off 71 balls (3 fours, 7 sixes) while Palmer hit an aggressive 64 off 71 balls with five fours and five sixes. Honore was in sight of being only the second player from St. Maarten to score a century against the Barbados U19 team. The first player from St. Maarten was Keacy Carty. Honore and Palmer were both hamstrung in their innings. Palmer had to be taken off for medical attention and returned to bat while Honore hopped around on one leg in his fighting innings at the crease. Morton contributed an unbeaten five, Singh four and Edward three. The Leeward Islands declared at 222 for nine to set the Bajans 231 to win. Barbados reached 203 for four when time ran out. Jordan top-scored with 61 off 55 balls (4 fours, 3 sixes). The wicket takers for the Leeward Islands were Mc Kenzie 15-0-61-2, Yanique Watley 5-0-25-1 and Morton 10-1-41-1. Edward and Palmer went wicketless with 7-0-38-0 and 6-0-38-0 respectively. The tournament continues on July 17, with Leeward Islands slated to play Jamaica, Barbados against Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago against the Windward Islands.
