BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – IN a pulsating final day of cricket yesterday (Mar. 10), the Reggae Boys of Jamaica pulled off a heist to stun the Leeward Islands in their second round encounter in the Regional 4-day competition at Warner Park.
The match that had a finish similar to that of a Limited Overs game, saw the visiting Jamaicans being the happier team following four days of exciting cricket action.
Resuming the final day on 117-3 with a paltry lead of 89 runs, Leeward Islands continued their momentum from the previous day with Captain Keiran Powell inching towards a half century and Devon Thomas who continued his aggressive batting to help grow the team’s lead.
Thomas looked set to score a century before a ball from Jamie Merchant offered little bounce, trapping him Leg Before Wicket, six runs short of the milestone.
Despite Thomas’s departure Powell looked set to continue to grow the Leeward Islands’ lead until a lapse in concentration drew a poor shot which led to his demise for 86.
Powell’s wicket started the Leeward Island’s collapse where they lost the last five wickets for four runs to hand the Jamaicans an outside chance of pulling off the victory.
John Campbell was the pick of the Jamaican bowlers bagging four for 15 runs while Merchant collected three wickets for 101 runs.
Setting a daunting target of 218 from 38 overs, the match was poised for a big finish as Jamaica looked to chase down the runs and take maximum points for the second game running.
With aggressive batting by both their openers, Jamaica lost Horace Miller with the score on 20 but their attempt was revived with a 50-run partnership between Campbell and Bonner. Bonner looked to be navigating the Jamaicans to victory before the pair fell in quick succession.
With two new batsmen at the crease - Jermaine Blackwood and Tamar Lambert - the Jamaicans seemed ready to give up on the chase and play for a drawn game.
However, after the wicket of Lambert, the Jamaicans made an astonishing decision to promote the big-hitting Jerome Taylor signalling their intent to attack the Leeward Islands' bowlers.
Taylor did not disappoint his teammates, striking a few lusty blows in his very fast 24 from 18 balls to put Jamaica in a commanding position to take victory.
Jamaica then quickly lost Taylor and Blackwood which brought the pair of Dave Bernard and Carlton Baugh to the middle and looked to revive the Jamaicans effort.
The pair applied pressure on the Leewards Islands’ fielders with quick running between the wickets to keep the possibility of the victory on the cards.
With six overs remaining and still more than 40 runs to get, Bernard and Baugh changed gears with a few big blows to bring the target under 20.
The fans that were present were well entertained during the game with majority supporting the Leewards Islands, having sweaty palms and biting their fingernails as the game climaxed
Leewards were given a lifeline when Bernard was run out by Thomas with three overs remaining in the day and a little over 20 runs to get.
Baugh however continued his brilliant display and left 16 runs to get from the final two overs.
The penultimate over was bowled by Kelbert Walters, but he was outmatched by the big-hitting of Baugh who guided the Jamaicans to a close victory by three wickets, dashing the Leeward Islands hope for a draw.
Man of the Match was John Campbell who scored the games only century as well as collecting four wickets.
