Tuesday 3 March 2015 will live long in the memories of the players from the Fatima and St. Mary’s College PowerGen SSCL Premiership cricket teams of that day. In the latest chapter of this historic College rivalry, played out on the “Saints” home ground at Serpentine road, the visiting Fatima boys would emerge victorious thanks in part to an excellent innings from Sean Persaud that caught the unsuspecting CIC team completely off guard and secured bragging rights for his school for that season.
Persaud had been one of the spearheads of the highly respected Fatima pace attack for some time and St. Mary’s would no doubt have expected him to have his say in the game with ball in hand when it was their turn at bat. His record spoke for itself, with his pace, aggression, and accuracy consistently delivering early wickets for his team. On this day, however, the Saints would come to painfully realize that his bat could be equally as destructive.
Fatima would get the opportunity to bat first on what looked to be a friendly wicket and their coach opted to send Persaud out to the middle earlier than usual. This was the 7th round of the competition and Fatima were leading the points table with just 2 games to come after today. Perhaps the coach felt that he needed to give his regular top order batters a little rest and allow the other players vital time at the crease. He found Sean in a mood to take full advantage of the opportunity and the CIC bowlers would suffer the wrath of his blade.
With West Indies U-19 player Amir Jangoo for company, Persaud unleashed every shot in his repertoire as he dispatched the bowlers to – and beyond – all parts of the boundaries. Jangoo would compile an attractive 78 off 73 deliveries but the carnage flowing off Persaud’s bat would yield 139 off 141 balls with nine 4’s and three towering 6’s. Their partnership saw Fatima to a daunting total of 283-4 at the end of 50 overs. The shell-shocked CIC boys simply could not recover to mount any semblance of a fight. Fatima’s Anand Lochan and Jean-Paul Rocke took 4 wickets each as the Saints folded for 67, out of which a young Joshua Da Silva top scored with 23. The 216-run margin of victory was indeed sweet, but for Sean Persaud, it was made all the more satisfying by the fact that he had subdued his great rivals before he even bowled a single delivery.
Sean was always one of the most consistent performers in the North zone. I consider his talent level to be in par with the best all rounders that Fatima have produced.
I remembered that match. Fatima had a strong team that year.