Anderson provides Hollywood style script in Bermuda win

Hollywood movies are full of sports heroes who are injured but gamely soldiers on to win the match for their team.

Steven Speilberg, meet Jason Anderson.

Coming in at number 3, Anderson battled through a stiff back to help lead Bermuda to victory over the UAE U-19 team yesterday.

Anderson formed a splendid third wicket partnership of 120 runs with Chris Foggo as the team opened the UAE tour with a five wicket victory.

Just how bad was his back? Physio Craig Brown had to work on Anderson a few times to help coax a few more knocks out of his hurtng body.

 Coach David Moore had praise for Anderson and the team, but said it’s always good to win, but there were still fundamentals the teams needed to work on.

“He batted well today. Craig Brown the physio worked on him a couple of time during the innings.

“We’re just hoping that’s just stiffness from lack of work.

“He batted very sensibly and very well. We were in trouble — it wasn’t easy, but I was pleased for him and for us. 120 is a major partnership for us and we haven’t been getting those during the season.

Moore said: “It’s always nice to win, but I don’t want to let the wind paper up the cracks that we’ve had in our processes today.

“We were a little disappointing in our first 15 overs where we didn’t hit our lines and our fielding wasn’t where we wanted it to be.

“After them being one for 101, we clawed back and took nine for 117 so that was a positive in the second 25 overs.

“Our batting was very encouraging. We did get in a hole as (David) Hemp got caught through a beautiful diving one-handed catch and then (Dion) Stovell and (Fiqre) Crockwell got two very good balls in which they were nicked out.

Encouraging

“It was good to see (Jason) Anderson and (Chris) Foggo have a partnership of 120 and (Lionel) Cann and (Delyone) Borden take it home for us.

“There were some very encouraging signs for us.

“Like I said, it’s always nice to win but we don’t want to get too carried away. We want to make sure our processes allow us to win more consistently.”

Moore added the fans will always look to see if the team has won or lost but at this stage it’s more about “their decision-making skills and their body language, their passion and their enthusiasm.

“To be fair to the team, the first 15 overs look like they hadn’t played in six months and the fact is they haven’t played in six months.

“They’ve been practising hard, but with any athlete or performer there is a big jump from practice to performance.

“We did look rusty, but there were some good things that came out of it.”

Moore said it was working on the smaller details that would help Bermuda succeed over the long haul.

He said the team celebrated the victory, but know it’s all about doing things correctly as the squad moves towards the April qualifiers which will determine what division Bermuda will play in for the next World Cup cycle.

“If we do the smaller things right, then the wins and losses will look after themselves.

“As we progress we’ll get more in the wins’ column then in the losses’ column.

“It’s just human instinct as the spectators look straight to the wins and losses’ column. They don’t look to see if so-and-so has made the correct decisions.

“The players know the spectators and fans look at the wins, then they too look at that outcome.

“Our business is winning. There is no doubt about that, but we’ll win more effectively when we do those little things right.

“The key is April. At the end of this tour we’ll have four practice days and five games so that’s great for a January.

“We’ll probably come back a little bit before the tournament to acclimatize and practice.

“Everyone’s seemed to pull up okay, but we’ll get a better idea the first thing tomorrow morning.