West Indies batsman Sunil Ambris was thrilled after scoring his maiden international century against Ireland on Saturday, 12 May, and is now setting his sights on greater targets.
Promoted to open the innings, Ambris scored 148 off 126 balls to lead West Indies’ successful chase of Ireland's 327/5, with more than two overs and five wickets to spare.
“I can't explain how I'm feeling, to be honest,” Ambris said. “It's out of this world. It's something that I've been working towards, something that I wanted to achieve. This is probably the best I’ve batted in international cricket. I haven’t played much games…once I got in, tried to carry it as deep as possible.”
Despite batting in an unfamiliar position – he is usually a middle-order batsman – Ambris was confident from the get go, in part because he was motivated by the prospect of getting a huge score.
“I started very fluent, so I wasn’t bogged down, it was easy for me. I got boundaries on the up. I was always going at more than a run-a-ball, so it wasn't the hardest of innings,” he said.
“I don't usually bat at the top, but I saw it as a good opportunity to get a big score. In this setup, I was slated to bat at seven, so I said to myself ‘instead of seven, I'll open.'”
Ambris isn't in the West Indies squad for the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2019, but teams have until 23 May to make changes, and Ambris has made a case for himself with this innings.
“That performance should keep my name there... Basically, let the selectors know that I'm still there and still scoring runs. As a professional cricketer, I always like to work hard.”
Ambris will have further opportunities to press his case when West Indies take on Bangladesh in the next match of the tri-series, on Monday, 13 May.
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