It is early days yet, but Miguel Cummins could be following in the footsteps of Malcolm Marshall, one of the greatest fast bowlers to play for Barbados and the West Indies.
Both Cummins and the late Marshall are products of the Parkinson Memorial Secondary School, which prolific former Barbados left-arm spinner Winston Reid also attended.
After routing Trinidad and Tobago with figures of five for 30 in 12.4 overs on the first day of this year’s Regional 4-Day Championship cricket final at Kensington Oval yesterday, 22-year-old Cummins said he learnt a lot during his stint at the Sagicor West Indies High Performance Centre.
“I got a lot stronger. I got fitter. I got more knowledge about the game. All of this helped me to improve, so I have to thank the coaches for the work that they did,” Cummins said.
It was the third time this season that Cummins had taken five wickets or more in an innings, including a career-best seven for 45 against the same opponents at Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad in the preliminary competition. He now has 31 wickets for the season.
“It feels great to be among the wickets again,” he said. “The body was feeling nice and I did everything I had planned to do.
“Things have been going great for me this season. This is my first full season playing for Barbados at the senior regional level. I had one match last year and it didn’t work out that well – but I was determined and came back and told myself this year would be my year.”
Cummins collected the scalps of West Indies opener Adrian Barath as well as Yannic Cariah and Jason Mohammed in the space of seven deliveries in an opening spell that reduced Trinidad and Tobago to nine runs for four wickets inside the first half-hour.
He later added West Indies wicketkeeper/batsman Denesh Ramdin for three and completed Trinidad’s innings with the scalp of Rayad Emrit for the top score of 34.
“I am a seam bowler and it seems that I have a knack for taking early wickets, which comes from just bowling the right line and length and being patient,” he said. (EZS/WICB Media)
