Holder hails batting after Windies win
Captain Jason Holder has pointed to West Indies’ rearguard batting effort in the first innings as the foundation of yesterday’s 226-run victory over Sri Lanka in the opening Test.
The hosts were floundering at 147 for five just before tea on the opening day when Shane Dowrich, who made a splendid unbeaten 125, anchored three key partnerships to help lift the total to 414 for eight declared.
Dowrich put on 90 for the sixth wicket with Holder (40), 102 for the seventh wicket with tail-ender Devendra Bishoo (40) before crushing Sri Lanka’s spirits in a 75-run, eighth-wicket stand with Kemar Roach (39).
“Credit to the batters and the bowlers. I thought it was an exceptional effort,” Holder told reporters.
“To put us in that position on the first day’s play into the second day’s play with the bat, for a total in excess of 400 was really good. It gave our bowlers an opportunity to come out and run at the Sri Lankans.
The victory for West Indies was their first over Sri Lanka in 10 years and handed them a 1-0 lead in the three-Test series, ahead of Thursday’s start of the second Test in St Lucia.
And with West Indies having endured a humbling whitewash to New Zealand in a two-Test series last December, Holder said Sunday’s victory was an ideal start to his side’s Test schedule for the year.
Black River Primary produced a dominant performance to sweep both the boys’ and the girls’ titles at the 10th staging of the Western Primary School Championships at the Montego Bay Sports Complex in Catherine Hall last Saturday.
Black River got 190 points to successfully defend their girls’ title as they finished ahead of Hague (90), Corinaldi (77), Brompton and Catherine Hall Primary (61 each).
In the boys’ contest Black River tallied 136. Howard Cooke (103.5), Barracks Road 93.5, Corinaldi (88) and Wakefield (76.5) completed the top five.
Coach of Black River Primary, Davion Elliott, was very happy with what they have managed to accomplish in this their third championships.
“We didn’t win the boys section last year, and we saw where we could have done a lot more. We believed the team (boys and girls) we had this year would be good enough to come out on top if we got everything together. We worked hard, put the pieces together this year and we delivered,” said Elliott.
Elliott, who also coaches the jumps at St Elizabeth Technical High School, said he believes if the country is to broaden their participation at the international level to include more than just sprints, then field event coaches have to place early emphasis on the technical events at the primary level.
PRIMARY LEVEL
“In truth, the technical events are my speciality, especially the jumps, so we pay key attention to those events. It is full time we pay attention and try to develop these events for Jamaica at the primary level,” said Elliot.
“Our sprinting is very good and will continue to do well. However, we need to spread our wings as a country and I believe it starts from here,” he added.
Nathoniel Gibbs of Corinaldi Primary was one of the standout performers of the championships picking up three gold medals in the Class 5 100m, 200m and 4x100 metres. Gibbs also set a new record of 24.94 in the 200m.
Kemeisha Brown was named the champion girl after picking up wins in the Class 5 100m and 200m and a fourth-place finish in the long jump.