Coach Williams revels in Wolmer’s T20 triumph despite lapse
WHILE pleased Wolmer’s Boys’ won the 2023 Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association urban area Twenty20 (T20) cricket championship, Head Coach Jerraine Williams knocked his team for losing focus during the final.
Wolmer’s Boys’ easily trounced St Jago by eight wickets in the grand finale at Chedwin Park on Wednesday.
Scores: St Jago 95-9 (20 overs); Wolmer’s 96-2 (9.4 overs).
Jordan Johnson blasted 73 runs in an entertaining innings that set up Wolmer’s Boys’ for triumph in only nine overs and fours balls.
“I thought it was a good game all around from my team but I was disappointed in the boys because I thought St Jago made 20 runs too many. In a T20 cricket game you have to get your opponents out as quickly as possible, and I believe we lapsed a little in them getting to 95 runs,” Williams told the Jamaica Observer.
“But, overall, it was a good game for the boys and it was encouraging to see them come out and play the way they did. I am proud of them and grateful to them,” he said.
Earlier, St Jago won the toss and chose to bat first but only managed 95-9 in their allotted 20 overs, with Milton Luckain leading the way with 45 runs off 36 balls.
A 55-run, fourth-wicket partnership between Luckain and Vitel Lawes was central to their total but the staggering collapse from 83-3 as they chased quick runs effectively sealed their fate.
Wolmer’s Nicoli McKenzie took 3-19 while Alex Hinds (2-6) and Omari Wedderbourn (2-12) also contributed heavily in undermining the St Jago batting unit.
Johnson wasted little time in the run chase, thumping seven sixes and four boundaries from 31 balls.
Before the left-hander was dismissed he was utterly dominant in an 88-run opening stand with Jose Northover. Two runs later Northover followed (nine) but the damage had already been done, leaving Corey Hinds and McKenzie, who both finished unbeaten on two, to take Wolmer’s to victory before the innings had reached the half-way mark.
St Jago’s Shamore Dawkins (1-5) and Lawes (1-31) were the two wicket-takers.
In Thursday’s rural area schoolboy T20 final, Manchester High are to welcome freshly crowned all-island Spalding Cup winners St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) to Mandeville for a much-anticipated clash. The scheduled start time is 11:00 am.
In rural area semi-final action on Monday, Manchester had defeated May Day High by 40 runs while STETHS had registered a 46-run win over Tacky High.
