Good feeling for 3-day win says Hosein
By JOEL BAILEY Tuesday, March 11 2014
Newsday
AKEAL HOSEIN described his 11-wicket haul for Trinidad and Tobago against Windward Islands in their Regional Four Day Competition Round Two clash as “a good feeling.”
The 20-year-old left-arm spinner returned figures of 6/33 and 5/34 to earn the Man of the Match award as Trinidad and Tobago drubbed the visitors by 186 runs at the Queen’s Park Oval.
Playing his third First-Class game, and his first on home soil, Hosein noted, “Obviously a good feeling. Anybody who takes 11 wickets will always be joyous. It was a total team effort.”
“The guys were there supporting me all the way and it just gave me more confidence to go out and do my job,” he added. “It made it a lot easier.”
Hosein plays for Queen’s Park Cricket Club and, asked if his knowledge of the wicket worked to his advantage, the ex-West Indies Under-19 player replied, “I would say to some extent. The wicket was a little challenging with the grass. Once I got the ball in the right areas, everything worked out fine. I still have some work to do but I’m thankful that I got the Man of the Match.”
A number of spinners have been featuring for Trinidad and Tobago in the past few years and Hosein his hopeful that he can cement his place on the squad, despite the array of slow-bowling options.
“I can only control what I can control, doing well and hopefully staying on the team,” he said. “I know the other (spinners) are talented as well. Everybody does well at some point so I’ll just hold on and try to do as best as possible on the field.”
He struggled with the bat in both innings and admitted, “I was fairly disappointed I failed with the bat. That really hurt me a lot. I really enjoy batting, I’m an all-rounder.” Trinidad and Tobago will be playing the Leeward Islands in the Third Round this forthcoming weekend (March 14-17).
“We’re not going to hesitate against any opposition,” he said. “We’re going to play everybody as if it’s a world-class team. We’re not going to take any team for granted.
“We’re going to try to win the title this year. We’re not going to lapse on anybody, it’s going to be a total team effort and try to win this round.”
Another TT all-rounder, captain Rayad Emrit, commented, “I must say thanks to the Almighty God because nothing is possible without Him. We came here hoping that we could have (gotten) maximum points and we did. I must say well done to the guys. Our bowling again did the part.”
“There (are) a lot of room for improvement, where our batting is concerned,” he continued. “We spoke to the guys at length and breadth as we need to improve in a lot of areas. Hopefully we can get things right come next game and have another victory.” About Hosein, Emrit said, “He was picked as an all-rounder in the team. We know his ability with the bat and the ball, and he delivered for us in both innings, getting six and five (wickets respectively). He’s an exciting young player, one to watch for the future and hopefully he can grow from strength to strength.”
But he spared no punches for the batting, with returns of 222 and 210 in the respective innings.
“Our batting has been failing us for a while now,” Emrit said. “We haven’t been getting the guys to score big runs. It’s something we have to work on. We need to improve. We need to find the remedies for our batsmen to bat longer innings. Hopefully the coach (Kelvin Williams) can get the guys in the nets and work on these things.”
