BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Liam Sebastien is still trying to calm down following his second first-class hundred for Windward Islands against Barbados in the WICB regional first-class championship on Saturday. Sebastien struck a chancy, career-best 143 to help the Windwards gain a 20-run, first innings lead in the day/night, fourth round match at Kensington Oval
“Despite the chances that I got, I really enjoyed this knock because I was positive, and when I went out to the crease, we were in a spot of bother at 12 for two,” Sebastien said.
“I told Andre Fletcher that I was going to be positive from the start, and it paid off for me, despite the chances that I had.”
He added: “I really can’t describe my reaction. I was just really full of joy, and I did not know what to do to celebrate.
“I almost cried because I haven’t scored runs in a while for the Windwards. To be able to go out there, and play that sort of innings for the team was fantastic.”
Sebastien is currently enrolled at the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies, where he is pursuing his Masters degree in business studies. This allows him to play for the UWI side in the Barbados Cricket Association’s Division 1 championship, where last year he struck two hundreds in the early part of the season, and gave him plenty knowledge about the Barbados attack.
“Playing club cricket in Barbados worked out to my advantage, since I knew all the guys,” he said.
“The main concern we had was Pedro (Collins) swinging the ball because we knew that Tino (Best) would be his normal self, running in and bowling aggressively,” he said.
“I saw when Devon Smith got out, and the ball swung a little bit. We felt as long as we could counter this, we could get close.”
The match is being played under unfamiliar conditions. It’s the second experimental day/night fixture of the competition, and instead of the customary red ball, a pink ball is being used.
Sebastien reported that there were little or no problems with dealing with the unusual conditions, but he was not drawn into whether he would prefer to see the experiment extended into full use.
“So far, we have not encountered too many problems with the pink ball,” he said. “The most difficult thing was to deal with the transition from playing in daylight to playing under the lights. “The ball started to swing a bit more in the change of conditions, so it was a bit of challenge to bat at night than it was to bat during the day.”
