T Becca: Jamaica Schools - Two gems from Holmwood (19 May 1998)

19 May 1998

Two gems from Holmwood

Tony Becca

Headley Cup champions Holmwood Technical won the Spalding Cup with a decisive five-wicket victory over Sunlight Cup champions Kingston College at Melbourne Oval on Wednesday, and the players, the coach, and the entire school deserve high praises for the accomplishment.

Although cricket is a team sport, although opening batsman Roger Sollodan played a sheet anchor role while scoring 69 off 191 deliveries, there are, however, two players, Ricardo Powell and Evan McInnis, who deserve a bit more than the others.

Joining the action with Holmwood on 23 for one chasing 275, Powell caned the KC bowlers with some audacious strokeplay before he was caught in the deep at 148 for two after smashing three sixes and 11 fours while scoring 83 off 81 deliveries.

Powell's driving, off the frontfoot and off the backfoot, was superb, and one stroke - a pull off the fast bowler to long on for six - was simply magnificent.

Joining the action at 209 for five, McInnis, the fast bowler who grabbed six wickets for 50 runs in KC's innings, blasted the KC attack with a blistering array of strokes as he chipped to 64 not out in an innings during which he faced only 34 deliveries and slammed four sixes and eight fours.

They were two innings to remember, and without both of them, Holmwood may have fallen to KC.

The one which will be talked about for a long, long time however, was that by McInnis - not because it was, in terms of quality, better than Powell's, which it was not, not because it was, coming at the end, a match-winning effort, but because it was unexpected, sudden, and deadly.

With the scoreboard reading 209 for five, the KC supporters, who knew nothing about McInnis as batsmen, believed they were on top and that victory was just a matter of time. And so too, based on the smiles on the field, did the KC players.

In contrast to that, the Holmwood supporters, regardless of their boast afterwards, were nervous - to the extent that before McInnis' blast they were talking, many of them, of what might have been had Powell not miscued what appeared a harmless delivery from spin bowler Shane Brooks.

The bowling, as it has been all season, and as it is generally in Jamaica, was ordinary. What followed however, was still amazing coming from a schoolboy batsman, and in the twinkling of an eye the match was over.

According to coach Roy McLean, KC did not make enough runs. May be so, and may be not. The brilliance of McInnis on Wednesday afternoon was such however, that 400 runs would probably not have been enough.

Source :: The Jamaica Gleaner (https://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/)