Cricket fans descended on Lords Bank by the hundreds before noon today to witness the final match in the best of three series for the 2008 Rural-Belize District Cricket Championship between defending champions Brilliant of Crooked Tree and Excellence of Double Head Cabbage; and they were treated to a very exciting match indeed. Brilliant had won the first game, and last week Excellence had returned the favor, to force the third and decisive game, which began a couple minutes after 11:00 this morning.
Brilliant batted first, but the picture looked bleak early on for the two-time defending champions, as they quickly lost two wickets (caught out) for one run only; and by the time six wickets had fallen, the champs, who had not batted in 40 runs yet, seemed headed to certain defeat. But when the skies are dark the stars shine brightest; and when Brilliant captain Lawrence Banner took the pitch, he placed his struggling team on his shoulders, protected his wicket for the rest of the innings, and scored 61 runs not out, to give his team the respectable final total of 135.
Commenting after his team’s loss the previous week, captain Banner had remarked that “the bats didn’t come through for us today,” as they had ended up on the short end of the 158-84 score. Again today, his fellow batsmen struggled, but the captain came through for his team when they needed him most.
But his job wasn’t ended there, as the Excellence batsmen only last weekend tallied a cool 158 runs to take game two in the series. 135 runs seemed a reasonable target for the confident Excellence bench, as their opening batsmen patiently, perhaps too patiently, defended their wickets, waiting for the Brilliant bowlers to tire. But the Brilliant strategy was nothing short of brilliant today, as their bowlers made tactful use of regular wide balls, giving up the occasional run, while keeping the Excellence batters off balance, chasing bad balls, only to return with a good mix of Yorkers or sudden change-ups, putting the batters back on the defensive. Excellence batters were defending well, but the runs weren’t coming fast enough, under 40 runs at around the 20-over mark of the 50-over match.
When Excellence realized they needed to start batting more aggressively, their impatience got the better of them, as they chased the wide balls more recklessly, and fell victim to the good balls when they came on wicket. The real sign of trouble was when last week’s star Kenny Broaster was bowled swinging hard at a change-of-pace leg-break by Brilliant captain Lawrence Banner, and Excellence captain Percy Flowers also got bowled shortly after in similar fashion. It seemed to have become a race against time and the overs, and the impatient Excellence batsmen, swinging more fiercely and running more aggressively, repeatedly got bowled, caught or run-out by superb Brilliant fielding. The big Excellence innings did not come, and dejected Double Head fans soon realized that their team had been beaten even before the last batter was run out trying to stretch a single into a double, to end their day’s scoring at 93. Crooked Tree fans were ecstatic, rushing the pitch to celebrate with their repeat champions.
Excellence was led in scoring by opening batsman J. Flowers with 20 runs, and S. Martinez took 3 wickets for 22 runs.
For Brilliant, bowler B. Lewis was outstanding, taking 6 wickets for 19 runs; but their captain, Lawrence Banner, who recorded 2 wickets for 9 runs, also kept the Excellence batters on their heels, unable to drive the ball, thus keeping their score low, while he led all batsmen with 61 runs not out for the day.
Without any doubt, our Man of the Match today has to be Brilliant captain Lawrence Banner, who led his team both offensively and defensively to an unprecedented third consecutive championship in the Rural-Belize District Cricket Competition to claim the 2008 Harrison Parks Championship Trophy.
It was a beautiful day for cricket, a very exciting game, and defending champions Brilliant was indeed, brilliant.