No room for complacency – Service

JAMAICA UNDER-15 cricket coach Phillip Service lauded his players for pulling off a huge upset victory against defending champions Barbados in their Cricket West Indies Rising Stars U15 Super 50 Championship match on Tuesday in Antigua, but … .

While Service was pleased with his charges’ outing, the veteran coach said there is no room for complacency as the team takes on Guyana in their second-round encounter at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium today.

Led by an all-round performance with both bat and ball from Demarco Scott, who made 49 and then returned to bag three wickets for 12 runs, the Jamaicans carved out an 18-run win which was pleasing to Service.

“We won a really tough game versus the defending champions Barbados and it was a good all-round effort by the team. We didn’t panic when things got really tough as the boys really showed character. There are some areas that we still have to improve, namely the batting, bowling and fielding and we are looking forward to the next game against Guyana,” said Service.

Apart from Scott, Savio Jones also had a handy knock by scoring 34, as he and Scott put on a 77-run third-wicket partnership which helped bolster the Jamaican total, pushing them to 165 all out in 42.3 overs.

A disciplined bowling effort which saw Adrian Silvera and Scott bagging three wickets each helped to peg back the Barbadians, who lost six wickets for just three runs.

Guyana were blown away by Trinidad & Tobago in their opening contest, but Service doesn’t believe this is necessarily good news for the Jamaicans.

“Guyana lost their first game against Trinidad so we expect them to come with an improved performance. We aim to build on the positives of our first game while reducing areas of weakness, particularly our ground fielding. I let them know that there is no room for complacency.”