FROM THE BOUNDARY - Lambert starting to blossom

Tony Becca

THE REGIONA0L Carib Beer cricket series for 2007 is now three rounds old and so far there have been some exciting and interesting performances. I am sorry, really sorry, that I have not been fortunate enough to have seen all of them, and more so, the batting performances of Trinidad and Tobago's youngsters, Kieron Pollard and Adrian Barath.

It is said that all that glitters is not gold, and the history of West Indies cricket is filled with so many youngsters who looked like climbing the mountain but who failed to make it. The performances of Pollard and Barath so far, however, promise great things and we can only hope and pray that God will bless them and that they will fulfil their promise.

In the first round, on the first day of the competition, Pollard, a 19 -year-old former Trinidad and Tobago Youth and West Indies Youth representative, went to bat against Barbados in Barbados, the score was 48 for three, at another stage it was 81 for six, and when he left the scene, at 239 for nine, everyone, or so it was said, was dazed.

Batting for less than three hours during which he faced 150 deliveries, the young man blasted seven sixes and 11 fours while scoring 126.

And if that was not enough, he returned to score 69 in the rain-ruined match against Guyana, and followed that up with another scintillating 117 against the Leeward Islands.

In the KFC one-day competition, Pollard, standing at six feet, five inches tall, scored 46 not out against Barbados, and then, in an innings during which he hit seven sixes and six fours, he rattled up 87 off 58 deliveries against Guyana.

Barath not as aggressive

Barath is not, according to the reports, as aggressive as Pollard. By all accounts, however, the 16-year-old opening batsman, the Trinidad and Tobago Youth and West Indies Youth representative, who scored 131 against the Leeward Islands, is just as good and just as promising.

I did, however, see one of the good innings played so far - and that is Tamar Lambert's splendid 110 against Guyana.

At 25, Lambert is not as young as either Pollard or Barath, and it is disappointing that unlike Pollard and Barath, who scored theirs so early in their careers, the man who looks so good every time he takes up a bat, and who, in looking good and in command all the time, reminds me of the good batsmen of old, has taken so long to score his first regional century.

Good things are sometimes worth waiting for, however, and there is no question about it, Lambert's century was good - really good.

After starting off this season with 70 against the Leeward Islands and with 68 against the Windward Islands, the chubby Jamaican batted brilliantly from start to finish against Guyana while stroking nine fours and smashing three sixes in an innings which lasted for 291 minutes during which he faced 218 deliveries.

Safe and solid every time

Unlike some modern batsman who look good one day and so bad the following day, regardless of how many runs he makes, Lambert looks safe and solid every time he goes to bat. In doing so he looks like a man who can bat and, except that he went all the way this time, on Sunday there was no difference in his batting.

Lambert certainly did not hit as many fours or sixes as young Pollard did against Barbados, but his timing was perfect, except for one stroke when he hooked at pacer Asaun Crandon and mistimed the ball which hit his glove and fell at his feet, he hit every ball, whether driving, hooking or cutting, with the middle of his bat and three of them were magnificent shots.

One was a back-foot square-cut off legspinner Mahendra Nagamootoo, one was a spanking drive to the long-off boundary off pacer Reon King and one, a really glorious strike, was a hit off Nagamootoo that sailed over wide long-on and must have dropped somewhere close to Giltress Street.

At age 25, it is bit late, but it is never too late, and hopefully, that century innings was the start of some really good batting and a glorious run, as he now moves to fulfil his early promise.