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Marvin Darlington ... took three crucial catches in SDC Twenty20 third-place play-off. - Richard Bryan photo
The most common sight in Twenty20 cricket is that of batsmen bashing bowlers to the boundary and over it. Bowlers have had their days too and a third grouping, fielders, come some way down the ladder.
However, last Sunday's SDC National Community Twenty20 cricket third-place play-off between Waltham and Race Course of Clarendon at Alpart Sports Club was largely influenced by fielding, with an outstanding contribution from Waltham's Marvin Darlington.
In a low-scoring match for which Race Course were dubbed the favourites primarily for the presence of West Indies Twenty20 specialist Krishmar Santokie, Darlington, largely unknown to the spectators on hand, produced three catches at crucial junctures to swing the game Waltham's way.
Earlier when Waltham batted, Darlington, who has represented Kingston and St Thomas in the Jamaica Cricket Association Senior league, had barely troubled the score, being part of a cluster of cheap wickets to fall as his team slipped from 41 for two after nine overs to 55 for six in the 13th over. Following his low-key batting performance, the 22-year-old Darlington told STAR Sports he was determined to make a contribution when his team defended its total of exactly 100.
"I was very disappointed the way I got out knowing I am a key player in the team but I know there were two other components I could contribute - bowling and especially fielding that can make a difference in such a short format of the game," revealed Darlington who has a top score of 96, an innings he played to defeat quarter-finalists Bridgeport during the parish play-offs.
Darlington's first impact on the game would come in the ninth over at a point where Race Course were about to raise the tempo of their run chase. Their most consistent player, opener Wayne Davis, who been dropped by Theron Edwards off the bowling of Aldane Bruce when only four, and a mere six runs on the board, was beginning to find momentum with an array of delightful off-side shots. Two of them really brought thunderous cheers from the crowd - the first a lavish cut behind point coming a ball later after Edward's miss on the cover boundary.
The second - easily the shot of the day - coming in the seventh over, as the former Garvey Maceo and National youth player cut exquisitely past point all along the ground to the boundary to move to 27 at 38 for 2.
With Davis showing a penchant for the cut through and behind point and gully regions, at times making his execution aerial, it seemed strategic that Darlington was summoned for duties there.
Fitzroy Peterkin, bowling to a plan, served up a delivery just short of a length on the off side. With the trap set, Davis initially resisted the urge to cut from the first three deliveries. However, on the fourth, he leaned back to cut and the clean sound of the ball on willow and the cheers of the crowd suggested the ball was on its way past the fielder on the way to the boundary. However, in a moment of sheer brilliance, Darlington dived forward from his position at point to snatch the ball inches from the ground, and and Davis was out for 29 effecting a crucial shift in the game at 43 for four.
A fightback from Race Course had seen them requiring 14 runs from two overs with three wickets remaining. Darlington, who represented various age group teams at Kingston College between 2002 and 2007, was summoned to a target area covering midwicket and long on. His safe hands snapped up two catches in the penultimate over as Race Course were dismissed for 89, 11 runs short.
The way his teammates ran to him to celebrate the third-place finish which brought them $200,000, easily demonstrated the weight of his contribution.
