Manchester were crowned the new champions of the 24th Kingston Wharves Under-15 Cricket Competition on Friday at Sabina Park, after defeating St Ann by six wickets.
Both teams were playing in the final for the first time.St Ann, who defeated former champions St Andrew in last Wednesday’s semi-final, won the toss and made just 109 all out in 39.4 overs on the back of Shamar Smith’s 23, and Rashand Richards’ 22. The wickets went to Kevon Anniord, who took 3 for 12 in nine overs, Rushane Allen, 3 for 24 in 10 overs, and Ian Codner, 2 for 30 in 10 overs.St Ann lost their first wicket with 19 runs on the board and continued to lose wickets at regular intervals throughout the innings.Manchester, in reply, got off to a shaky start losing their first wicket with just one run on the board, but they recovered after some poor fielding by St Ann, who dropped six catches.The victors eventually overhauled St Ann’s score, making 110 for 4 in 32.5 overs. Javardi Francis, 37 not out, Rushane Allen, 28, and Xavier Burton, 18, were the main run scorers. Shamar Smith was the most successful bowler after getting two wickets for 29 runs in 10 overs.Gary Graham, coach of Manchester, who spoke after the final, said: “We are happy to reach the final for the first time and more so to win it. We have a young team, which we are grooming, so we expect to be able to defend our title next year. We were not worried by the score, as we consistently made more runs than that during the competition.”St Ann’s coach Orville Pennant, on the other hand, said: “We did well to get to the final after taking out the defending champions, but faltered because our boys fielded poorly, having dropped six catches. The target was low and so we had to bowl them out in order to win and we did not. We will come back stronger next year as we will have several players from this year’s team.”Mark Williams, marketing manager of Kingston Wharves, the title sponsor, committed his company’s continued support to the competition for the long haul as well as announced that 30 cricketers would be invited to a camp to be held in October to sharpen their skills.The awards presentation followed shortly after the end of the game. All the members of both teams got gift vouchers to be used to purchase books, while there were three special awardees who also got gift vouchers. The awardees were Rushane Allen of Manchester — man of the final for getting three wickets and making 24 runs; MVP of Manchester — Javardi Francis wicketkeeper, who made 226 runs (average 56.51), and MVP of St Ann — Shamar Smith for his 214 runs (average 71.66) and nine wickets at 10.06 apiece.Manchester cricketers celebrate with the Kingston Wharves Under-15 Cricket Competition Trophy, as Patrick Reid (left), manager of the Manchester team, Milton Henry (second right), first VP Jamaica Cricket Association, and Mark Williams (right), chief marketing manager Kingston Wharves, look on last Friday at Sabina Park. (PHOTO: MICHAEL GORDON)View the original article here
Manchester claim KW U15 cricket title
