CUL DE SAC--Amarius Harris, the lone St. Maarten player in the Leeward Islands U15 team spurred his team to its one and only win in Cricket West Indies U15 tournament in Jamaica.
The Leeward Islands registered a tense five run win over Trinidad and Tobago in the fifth and final round of the tournament. The Leeward Islands batted first and scored 132 all out in 49.3 overs, to which, Trinidad and Tobago replied with 127 all out in 49.5 overs.
Trinidad and Tobago was always in control of the match and was cruising to victory at 94 for three until a dramatic collapse gave the Leewards a moral boasting win. The Trinis lost their last seven wickets for just 33 runs.
Quite interestingly, the captain of the Leewards Carlon Tuckett asked Harris, who is a left arm spinner, to bowl to final over with one wicket to get or eight runs defend.
Harris is a student at Mondes Collage on the French side but started playing cricket at the Martin Luther King School in the Scotiabank Kiddy Cricket Programme held his nerves to help his team win the match.
Harris conceded a mere three runs off the first four balls and then on the fifth ball of the over, Avalon Changoor hit the ball high in the air and was caught to give Harris his second wicket and triggered wild celebrations among the Leeward Islands players.
Harris registered excellent bowling figures for his team with 5.5-0-13-2. The other wicket takers were Rudolph Seegolam 6-2-16-3, Gyan Griffith 4-1-16-1, Hilroy Andrew 6-1-19-1 and Demetri Lucas 10-1-20-1.
When the Leeward Islands batted, Captain Tuckett led the way with 31 while Andrew with 24 and Shaquan O'Neil with 20 made solid contributions.
Leeward Islands ended up in the cellar position on 7.7 points (1-4). Barbados emerged as back-to-back champion with 26.2 points (4-1). In second place was Guyana with 24.5 points (4-1), host Jamaica placed third with 13.2 points (2-3), Windward Islands placed fourth place with 12.6 points (2-3) and Trinidad and Tobago came fifth place with 12.4 points (2-3).
