BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – Nicholas Kirton and Ashley Nurse played vital roles in Barbados Pride’s opening victory over Jamaica Scorpions in the Colonial Medical Insurance Super50 Cup on Thursday.

In a Group “A”, day/night contest at Warner Park, left-handed batsman Kirton hit the top score of 55 off 82 deliveries in his first game in a Pride shirt, as the Barbados franchise reached 265 all out from their 50 overs, after they chose to bat.

Nurse added a typically robust 38 batting down the order and returned to be the pick of the Pride bowlers with 4-26 from 8.5 overs, as the Scorpions were dismissed for 190 in 39.5overs.

Kirton and Nurse spoke to CWI Media following the game and said the Pride were going to take the victory in stride. . .

NICHOLAS KIRTON

On his performance:

It’s a new team for me and I have to settle in with the different players and a different role batting at three. Last year, I was playing for the Combined Campuses & Colleges Marooners in this tournament and batting at six, so it’s a matter of adapting to the new role and it worked out.

On the value of his performance:

It’s very important. I was thinking I would be batting around the same position that I did last year for the Marooners because in the local 50-over competition in Barbados that is the position in which I bat – around five or six. The skipper, Jonathan Carter, asked me (the day before) if I would be comfortable batting at three. I told him it was no problem. It was whatever the team required, so he told me to get in, bat through the innings and that is what I tried to do, and it worked out.

On how much confidence he takes from his innings:

It’s just a matter of looking at the positives. I feel I could have tried to bat a bit quicker, but the pitch was a bit two-paced, especially off the spinners, so it was a matter of assessing the situation and figuring out what would be a good total. We reckoned anything above 250, so I would have liked to have batted a bit faster, but it worked out for the team in the end and that is what matter.

On the team winning:

At the half, we spoke about the pacers bowling the balls into the pitch because it was a lot harder to get the ball away. But for the spinners, when they bowled the ball on a good length, it was not coming through that easy, so we felt the spinners would be the main threat, and Ashley Nurse executed really well.

On how the result positioned the team:

We are trying to take it one game at a time. This is only the first game. We have seven more games in this group, and we are looking to get across to Trinidad and the knock-out stage, when we will have to bring our “A” game, as a team, right the way through. But we are taking it one step at a time and make sure we qualify for the semi-finals first, make sure we qualify in first position and head across to Trinidad and take it from there.

ASHLEY NURSE

On his performance:

It is a good start to the tournament for me, but also for the team. It was a good win. We bossed the game up to a certain point and then a fantastic innings from Andre McCarthy put us under some pressure, but I think we stood up well and handled the pressure well.

On his bowling:

I have been working hard in the nets, going back to the basics and it has been paying off, so I am trying to do the basics more often than not and hopefully it will continue to pay off for me throughout the remainder of the tournament.

On pitch conditions:

I think it was good pitch and the batsmen were stroking the ball nicely, but it was a bit slow. The Warner Park pitch is typically on the slow side, but if you put in the work, you can get results as a bowler.

On the batting of Nicholas Kirton and Kyle Mayers:

I am really pleased to see the young players stepping up. Nick was not in good form playing in the World Twenty20 qualifiers for Canada, but he came and showed his class. He spent some time at the crease and got some results. Kyle has always been a good player. He is a strong fellow. If the ball comes into his zone, he backs himself to hit the ball over the ropes. It was all about building partnerships. Our coach asked us for three 50-run partnerships, and we did that. Once we have wickets at the back end of the innings, it makes it easy for people, like me, to come and go hard in the last 10 overs.

On the result of the match:

We have just played one of the strongest teams in the tournament and if we continue to play the way we played here, we should be in good grazing to go into the semi-finals.

Source: CWI Media

Also see: SUPER50: PRIDE TAKE THE STING OUT OF SCORPIONS IN DAY 2 OF MATCHES

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