West Indies Local: Anguilla and St. Kitts play to a draw

The Anguilla National cricket team played to a draw this past weekend against St. Kitts at the Ronald Webster Park in Anguilla. Anguilla were coming off two resounding victories against Montserrat the week before in both the one-day and three-day format of the tournament.

Upon winning the toss, Anguillian captain and Leeward Island's opener, Alex `Herbal' Adams elected to bat on a pitch that looked full of runs. However, Anguilla did not make the most of the favourable conditions and were quickly 48 for 2 with opener Leon Lake (13) and Carlos Sasso (2) back in the pavilion. This brought together skipper Adams (60) and Zach Kenworthy (27) who put together the most substantial partnership of the innings that of 55 runs. Adams played freely and continued his fine season with the bat as Kenworthy played the supporting role. The only other substantial contribution with the bat came from pacer Richard Stevens who played a cameo innings of 20 and helped his team to 188 all out. Leg-spinner Sheldon Jeffers was the pick of the bowlers and bowled consistently throughout the innings as he claimed 6 Anguillian wickets.

In reply, St. Kitts couldn't have asked for a better start as 18 year old Shane Jeffers (116) and Leeward's opener, Junie Mitchum (90) put together a mammoth opening partnership of 182. Mitchum played as freely as Adams did for Anguilla while Jeffers played some exquisite cover drives as they both almost whiped off the Anguillian total themselves. However, Anguilla came back admirably and took ten wickets for 97 runs as St. Kitts were eventually bowled out for 275. Only off-spinner Francis was capable of scoring double figures down the order as he put together a quick 23.

Facing a deficit of 87 with over a day to bat Anguilla had to put their heads down and concentrate. However, with Sasso (5), Kenworthy (4) and Lake (11), who was unfortunately given out caught off his pad, all back in the pavillion things were never going to be easy. However, skipper Alex Adams came to the rescue once again and registered his second century of the young season with a smashing even 100. Adams looked the part and played a very important captain's innings. He was also well supported by Rudolph Proctor (23), Chaka Hodge (37) and his brother Terry Adams (52) who all batted very responsibly. Hodge and Terry Adams had a particularly important 50 partnership as they practically snatched the match away from the Kittitians. Pauliver Rogers also batted patiently at the end an ensured that Anguilla sailed into safer waters at 280 for 7 at the close of play and just 10 days before Anguilla Day.

The one-day match, however, was rained out almost half way through the match. In the only innings of the match, Anguilla batted and were 148 for 6 after 44 overs. The Kittitian spinners bowled with great accuracy and restricted the Anguillian batsmen to limited scoring. Captain Alex Adams played a very patient and important captain's innings once again with 58 as he safely guided his side to better waters after a shaky start. Rudolph Proctor also batted well for a quick-fire 33 before he was run out and before the rains cut the match short. Both teams collected 1 point each from the washed out fixture.

The Anguilla team have a rest week this week, as do all teams for the Antigua Test Match, but travel to Antigua next week Wednesday to take on Antigua in a three-day fixture and a one-day fixture.