Martin Nurse Slams Century For Cosmos

August 6th, 2008
(Celebrating 26 Anniversary)- Martin Nurse stroked a classy century for Cosmos last Sunday against Jamexpol at Roy Wilkins Park, Queens in his bid for a recall to the Barbados national team for the upcoming Caribbean KFC tournament in September.

Martin Nurse

With the religious tent pitched in the Northern end of the wicket, a resurrected and otherwise explosive Nurse -a very talented young player- showed that he has the potential to concentrate and occupy the wicket when required. He remained focused throughout, even though, he was the unfortunate candidate of dubious umpire decisions in the earlier matches with scores of 88, 76, 65. He reached the boundary with fourteen exquisitely executed fours through cover point and the mid-wicket region and a towering six over mid off in his 74 balls inning of 122 runs.

Nurse's innings laid the foundation for Cosmos with an opening partnership of 93 runs by the 10th over with Shafeek Shah (23) and then a century partnership for the second wicket with Dixeth Palmer (39). When Nurse departed caught on the cover point boundary, Mahabir Moonesar (58 off 39 balls) and Norman Hutchinson (46 off 26 balls) showed the dept in the cosmos batting lineup as they proceeded to construct a solid century partnership for the sixth wicket in the last ten overs, their blitz in the closing overs propelled Cosmos to massive 354 for 6 off 35 overs.

On a wicket that offered some bounce for the bowlers, it was always going to be difficult for this opposition and that proved to be an uphill climb for Jamexpol in their reply. Kevin Darlington's pace was evidence too good for the batsman’s edge, instead, he dismantled the woodwork with 2 for 24, while Sham Ali kept the wicket-keeper and the slips cordon awake as he swung his way back with 3 for 22.

The opening spell between Darlington and Ali left Jamexpol batsmen asphyxiated after fourteen overs. It was even more pace with the ball in Nurse's hand, he cleaned up the tail with a solitary over to complete an excellent all round performance as Jamexpol was bundled out for just 51 runs.

It was a Cosmos victory for the record books. Winning by 303 runs is the highest margin of victory by a team in the Metropolitan Cricket League. Cosmos will play River Valley next Sunday at Floyd Bennett.