Fresh from his five-wicket haul in the just-completed first round of the Cricket West Indies Regional first-class, four-day competition, Guyana Harpy Eagles’ pacer, Nial Smith is brimming with confidence heading into the second round of the championships.
The `Berbice Express’ performance was instrumental in helping the Harpy Eagles to a 183-run win over defending champions, Barbados Pride in the opening round bagging a `five-for’ in their second innings.
With the tournament featuring five rounds, a win over the Windward Islands Volcanoes in Grenada this week could put the team in line to reprise the title, the lost to the Pride.
Smith snatched 5-31, the third five-wicket haul of his career at the ground where it all started back in 2020 when he grabbed 6-55 on debut.
“I’m felling excited since the first match I’ve ever played,” he said.
“I made my debut here and I picked up five and since then I think it was just in Guyana alone against Trinidad [and Tobago Red Force] and since then I have struggled but I am feeling a kind of form, so it is a good feeling going into the second game,” he added.
Despite coming off a five-wicket haul, the 27-year-old feels the team still needs to be a bit more consistent.
“I think we needed to be more consistent, and I think the discipline in our second innings helped us a lot, we tested the batsmen more and that went well for us.”
Heading into the next round, Smith feels that doing the basics right could pay dividends.
“Putting the balls in good areas, it’s always good to test batsmen on these flat tracks, you never know what could stay low or move from a good area and take the edge and that is exactly what happened.”
Eagles are currently leading the points table with 20 points. Red Force are second with 10.2 points while Volcanoes and Leeward Islands Hurricanes are on 8.4 and 7.4 points respectively. Jamaica Scorpions sits on 6.2 points and Pride rounds off the table on 4.8 points.
