SKIPPER SHAUNDEL SINKS SUCCESS IN SIX BALLS

East Mucurapo Secondary and Success/Laventille Secondary have, over the years, produced some exciting cricket contests often decided by some brilliance from one of their respective players. On February 26^th, 2015 they did battle in a PowerGen SSCL North Zone U16 match that saw an individual performance that would go down as one for the ages. The ‘Compre’ boys were skippered by Shaundel Letren on the day, who, though less experienced than his counterpart Andrew Modeste, was nevertheless already making a name for himself as one of his school’s most promising and talented all-round cricketers. On winning the toss, he immediately decided to take first knock, believing that his bowling attack could defend any total that his team put on the board. The young captain was about to have both his faith and his own skill tested like never before.

When the nippy Akeem Sergeant broke the opening partnership in the 7^th over with the score on 30, things unravelled for the batting unit and by the time they had lost their 5^th wicket in the 16^th over they had crawled to 79 with just 9 overs left in the innings. A hard-hitting lower-order knock of 36 from Michael Deane eventually took Mucurapo to 144-9 and Shaundel turned to his bowlers to deliver the victory he was expecting. The Success captain, perhaps wary of the reputation of the Mucurapo opening pacers, decided to err of the side of caution and demote himself in the batting order. Initially, it seemed that his plan had backfired spectacularly, as his team slumped to 30-4 by the 12^th over and he found himself facing a daunting task with just his wicketkeeper for company and the bowlers left to come.

For the next 9 overs, Modeste set about putting on a clinic in farming the strike and shepherding his partners as he put on firstly 53 for the 5^th wicket with ‘keeper Weekes, then 41 with K. Williams so that at the end of the 21^st over Success were on 124-5 with Modeste himself on 60. They would need 21 runs off the final 4 overs and things looked grim for the Compre lads. With none of his other 6 bowlers looking like getting a breakthrough, Shaundel took the ball in hand to deliver his final over and, perhaps in his mind, his last roll of the dice. Charging in like a man possessed, his first ball crashed into the stumps, ending Williams’ long graft at the crease. The Mucurapo celebrations were subdued, as to a man, they knew that they needed much more. With his next ball, Shaundel completely bamboozled new batsman Jones, producing a slower one that knocked back the off-stump to set up a potential hat-trick delivery and get his team’s energy surging. New batsman Cuppin found himself confronted with a pitched-up fastball that he barely managed to keep out to deny the hat-trick, but he would not be able to deny Shaundel for long. The 4^th delivery of the over was fuller, faster, and struck him dead in front for L.B.W. bringing T. Baptiste to the wicket and leaving the Success boys on the boundary’s edge barely able to watch the proceedings. For his 5^th delivery, Shaundel would go back to his slower ball, deceiving Baptiste into lobbing a simple catch to mid-on. Remarkably, a second hat-trick opportunity in the over had arrived for Shaundel and all that stood between it and him would be number 11 batsman I. Simon. The Compre fielders, like sharks smelling blood in the water, swarmed the nervous batter and took up every possible close-in catching position that they could as their valiant skipper steamed in to deliver his final ball of the innings. Lady Luck would abandon young Letren, however, as a perfectly-pitched off-cutter would find the edge of the bat and fly low down to the ‘keeper’s right. Wicketkeeper Anthony Joseph dove to get his glove under the ball and flicked it back upwards, but it would evade the despairing lunge of the fielder at slip and Simon would survive.

Shaundel had, with his final effort of the innings, produced a maiden over with four wickets in it and nearly snagged a hat-trick twice. Success was now barely hanging on at 124-9, still, 21 runs from victory with 3 overs and 1 wicket left. Their captain Modeste had been a helpless spectator at the other end as Shaundel wreaked his havoc, and with a view towards ending things quickly, he took 8 runs off the 23rd over but was unable to keep the strike. That left Simon at the mercy of wily spinner Kendell Constantine and despite 3 scrambled runs, he eventually lost his wicket off the final ball of the over to see his team dismissed for 135 and give the Compre lads a narrow 9-run victory. A distraught Modeste stood unbeaten on 68 and though the contest was a hard-fought one, the Mucurapo boys showed their respect for their opposing captain, giving him a rousing ovation as he walked off the field. It was an excellent captain’s knock, but the day’s glory belonged to Shaundel Letren who sunk the Success victory march in six spectacular deliveries.