ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Even after three fine hundreds in five innings in the ongoing Regional Super50, in-form left-hander Kieran Powell has still lamented his lack of “big scores”.
The 26-year-old has been on an amazing run of form, hitting 105, 135 and 106 en route to a tournament-leading 429 runs for Leeward Islands Hurricanes but said he would not be totally satisfied until he began to notch more scores in excess of 150.
“I need to get big scores. I got [three] centuries and two of them are just 105 and 106 so we’ve had talks in the team meetings where when you get in you need to kick on and obviously I got out with 14 overs left so I think I missed the chance to get 150-plus,” Powell said following Hurricanes’ 105-run victory over English County Kent here on Saturday night.
“Nevertheless, the team managed to get to a respectable total and then the bowlers went and did the job so I’m happy with the overall team performance.”
Powell’s 106 was the basis of the hosts’ 275 for nine at Coolidge Cricket Ground, and it helped them register their fourth win in five outings.
The hundred emphasized the stylish batsman’s rich vein of form that has seen him also get 52 in a losing effort against reigning champions Trinidad and Tobago Red Force, and 31 against Kent in the Hurricanes’ opener two weeks ago.
Powell, who is returning to regional cricket this season in earnest following a two-year break from the game, said he was still high motivated despite his abundance of runs so early in the tournament.
“Personally, I wake up every day thinking I haven’t scored a run for the tournament yet so that’s why I go out and bat each game with a big appetite to try … and get some big runs on the board because I can’t rest on my laurels and think ‘I’ve got this amount of runs’ and be complacent at any point in time,” said Powell, who has played 21 Tests and 28 One-Day Internationals.
“I always think of it as though I haven’t scored any runs in the tournament yet and I owe the team a massive score every game so I think that’s my driving force in terms of getting these consistent scores and achieving this consistency so far in the tournament.
“Hopefully if I can continue to get some runs and the other guys get some runs as well and the bowlers keep performing, we can be lifting the cup at the end of the tournament.”
Hurricanes top Group A here with 19 points, six clear of Red Force who lie second, with Kent lying third on nine points.
And Powell was quick to reiterate that his form would be irrelevant if it was not enhancing Hurricanes’ fortunes.
“We’re trying to do everything to aim it towards the team,” he noted. “It’s just fortunate that I’m the one getting the runs at the moment and I’m going to try to continue to bat as deep as possible and hopefully I can continue to help the team.”
Hurricanes impressively won their opening three games before crashing to a narrow 11-run defeat to Red Force in their fourth game.
Their victory over Kent on Saturday put them one step closer to the semi-finals but Powell urged his side not to become complacent.
“Nothing changes. Obviously we are close to qualification but we need to go and play each game on the day and we can’t just afford to think we are ahead and get complacent and lose games because of that,” he warned.
“We need to go out and play hard, play consistent cricket, and keep playing team cricket and that’s going to get us to the semi-finals.”
