Watch: Fatima’s ROCKE stands firm to secure INTERCOL TITLE

Sporting history is littered with iconic clashes: Ali vs Frazier; Brazil vs Argentina; Lakers vs Celtics and in the cricketing world, England vs Australia in the Ashes. Friday 8^th May 2015 saw a new entry into this category: Fatima College vs Naparima College in the PowerGen SSCL Intercol final. The lions of the South had secured the League title by the barest of margins over their Northern rivals and were no doubt confident of a double title haul. For Donovan Clayton and his Fatima boys, being edged out to the League title by Naparima on bonus points was a bitter pill to swallow, especially since Fatima had played unbeaten through the entire campaign. Retribution was most definitely on their minds. The stage was set for an instant classic at the National Cricket Centre in Balmain, Couva, where the “Naps” supporters were out in their numbers together with the “Fatima Faithful” creating a sea of blue and yellow in the stands.

It all began disastrously for Fatima as semi-final centurion Jonathan Hirst had his stumps smashed by Naps pace ace Dominic Nandlal for 1 with the score on 4. This early success spurred on the Naps bowling attack and they soon had their opponents reeling on the ropes at 47-5, with Wendell George, Amir Jangoo, Sean Persad, and skipper Clayton all back in the pavilion. Just when it seemed that the Fatima quest for redemption would be washed away by the Naparima tidal wave, they found their rock to stand on: specifically, Jean-Paul Rocke. The tall, powerful left-hander chose the perfect moment to embody the saying “cometh the hour, cometh the man” as he began dragging his team back from the edge of disaster. With Dominick Henderson, and later in an unbroken 8^th wicket partnership with Akiel Guerra, “JP” would first stabilize, then consolidate and accelerate his team’s innings to a competitive 133-7 after their 20 overs. His 6 boundaries and solitary maximum were the pick of his shots in his 46 not out.

Naparima began their run chase in confident fashion as openers Cooper and Samuel nullified the Fatima fast bowling arsenal. Their partnership realised 52 runs before Donovan Clayton took matters into his own hands, bowling Samuel for 17 and getting new batsman Rambaran well caught by Hirst for 3. J.P. Rocke, fuelled with the adrenalin of his vital knock earlier, got Naps powerhouse Clevon Kalawan caught behind for a duck to leave the south lions at 60-3 and facing a mini crisis. Cephas Cooper was still holding down the fort at one end and with his skipper Roberto Samai, took the score to 111 before the dreaded curse of “Nelson” struck and Samai was out for a battling 20. Cooper would remind everyone present why he was a former National U-15 player as he took charge of the bulk of the scoring in partnership with Nandlal. Clearly hampered by back troubles, Cooper nevertheless fought on bravely, setting his team up at 120-4 by the end of the 18^th over to be left just 13 runs off the final 12 deliveries for victory. Fatima’s wily skipper Clayton was prepared for this, however, and had kept his 2 strike bowlers for the death to bowl one over each, believing that they would see his team home. They did not disappoint, with Daniel Brown conceding only 4 in the 19^th over and Jonathan Hirst, backed up by brilliant fielding, allowing just 7 in the 20^th over to give Fatima a 2-run triumph. 

From losing one title by the narrowest of margins, to winning another in similar fashion, it was truly an epic season for Fatima and their deserved man-of-the-match Jean-Paul Rocke.