By E. Glenford Prescott
St. Lucia rebounded to an opening day loss with a compelling batting performance coupled with good bowling to inflict a 52-run defeat on host St. Vincent and the Grenadines in round two action in the Windward Islands U15 Cricket tournament on Thursday at the main Arnos Vale Playing Field.
SCORES: St. Lucia 230-4 off 50 overs SVG 178 in 48.4 overs.
The St. Lucians, who were asked to take first knock, batted sensibly in compiling 230 for 4, the tournament’s highest score to date, built on another brilliant innings by Nick Elibox, who hit 83.
Elibox, who got 64 in Wednesday’s opening losing match against Grenada, was in even better form and revelled in ideal batting conditions on the fast Arnos Vale Playing Field. He played both pace and spin with ease and skill in finding the ropes eight times and one lofted show which cleared the boundary. He raised 113 for the third wicket with Johnel Eugene (39) with 75 of those runs coming off of his bat.
Other useful scores came from Dane Edwards (31) and Denzel James (24), as offspinner Greg Wyllie the ninth bowler used by his team finished with 2 for 20 off seven overs.
Set a target of 232 at just over 4.5 an over, the Vincentians never were in the hunt and lost wickets steadily to the spin-bias St. Lucia attack.
Their only joy came from Shane Roberts, who hit 79 in a lone hand effort. A tall right-handed powerful striker of the ball Roberts hit 8 fours and 2 sixes but received little support. Delorn Douglas got 21, while Extras tallied 33.
Right-arm legspinner Stuart Calderon took 5 for 37 in 9.4 overs, while Noah Sonson (1 for 23), Nedd Modeste (1 for 30) and Eugene (1 for 31) all chipped in to condemn SVG to their second defeat.