St Jago High Head Coach Joseph Lemmie remains optimistic despite his team being outplayed by Excelsior High in the ISSA/Grace Shield final on Tuesday.

At the close of play on day one of the urban area cricket showpiece, St Jago were 133-8 in reply to Excelsior’s imposing 337.

Scores: Excelsior 337 (60 ovs); St Jago 133-8 (35.3 ovs).

Lemmie accepted that the momentum is with Excelsior.

“I think the ascendancy is with Excelsior — they batted very well on a lovely batting pitch and they piled up the runs against us,” he said.

“When we batted the set batsmen kept on getting out at crucial intervals. I think they bowled in the right areas and we are where we are because of that. But with two more days of cricket who can tell what will happen?” Lemmie added.

The Excelsior team won the toss and opted to bat first in sunny conditions at Sabina Park in Kingston.

Michael Clarke top-scored with 73, while Demarco Scott (65), David Dewar (59) and Jamare Daley (41) added valuable runs as the Mountain View Avenue-based school built a solid first-innings platform.

Spinner Vitel Lawes took 5-118 for St Jago, while Lindale Anderson and and Milton Luckain claimed two wickets each. St Jago, who were losing finalists to Wolmer’s Boys’ last year, lost wickets regularly in their first-innings response. Luckain led the way with 51 and Anderson added 25. Scott and Tamarie Redwood have taken 3-40 and 2-29, respectively.

The St Jago coach expressed relief that the Excelsior score was not bigger given the start they had.

“I think we did very well to restrict them because at one stage they were 220-odd for the loss of three wickets, so our bowlers actually [bounced back].

We bowled too many boundary balls — we were bowling the ball in the right areas and that led to them taking advantage,” Lemmie explained.