CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, CMC – West Indies youth coach Andre Coley has praised his side’s “fighting spirit” after a resolute performance Friday that won them the third place play-off victory over Sri Lanka in the ICC Under-19 World Cup.
The Caribbean side rallied from a shaky start to beat Sri Lanka by four wickets at Queen Elizabeth II Park, snatching third place in the 2010 Championship.
“The most heartening thing about this team is their fighting spirit. The entire team has to be congratulated for their great show in this tournament,” Coley said.
Responding to Sri Lanka’s 291 for six off 50 overs, West Indies U19s stumbled to six for two in the third over when they lost openers Kraigg Brathwaite (0) and Trevon Griffith (1) cheaply, but they recovered superbly to achieve victory at 294 for six off 48.3 overs.
“Although we lost two early wickets and especially that of Brathwaite, they never gave up and player after player went out there and fought for the West Indies,” Coley said. The impressive 17-year-old Yannic Cariah stroked 110 not out with six fours and three sixes and his inspirational century stand with fellow left-hander John Campbell (77) spurred the young West Indians’ successful run chase.
Jermaine Blackwood (41) and Shane Dowrich (33) also played vital knocks.
West Indies arrived in New Zealand at the start of January as the ninth-ranked U19 team on the ICC list and their top three finish was encouraging for coach Coley.
“They came here as outsiders and left with their heads held high. They have done well for West Indies cricket and have given West Indies cricket a great fillip at this point in time,” Coley said.
“They were treated with respect down here and many people made comments to the team that they had a bright future in the game,” added Coley, who coached Jamaica to the regional TCL Group West Indies U19 double crown last summer.
Third-place play-off hero Cariah said their final result was the product of hard work and confidence.
“We believed in ourselves, we trained hard, we prepared ourselves well and we just came out and do the job,” he said. Cariah also praised the work of the management team, Coley, assistant coach Roddy Estwick, manager Omar Khan and physiotherapist CJ Clark.
“The management staff was fantastic. Everyone was supporting us, and they were always behind us to do well and even do better, ‘the sky is the limit’ they always said,” Cariah added.
West Indies had lost their semi-final match on Monday to Pakistan, who were beaten by Australia in Saturday’s final. West Indies, beaten also Pakistan in their first-round opener in mid-January, won four of their six matches in the tournament.
They beat Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea in group play before ousting highly fancied England in the quarter-finals and have recorded the second-best performance ever by a West Indies team at the youth World Cup, bettered only by the Caribbean side’s runner-up finish to Pakistan in Bangladesh in 2004.
