Defending champion and current points leaders Jamaica were large and in charge against home team and bottom-of-the-table Guyana at the end of the first day of their sixth round clash in the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) four-day competition at the Guyana National Stadium Providence, yesterday.
When bad light stopped play at 17:18hrs, Jamaica were 149-3 with former West Indies middle order batsmen Donovan Pagon and Wavell Hinds unbeaten on 39 and 31 respectively.
Narsingh Deonarine has so far taken 2-25.
Batting first after winning the toss, the defending champions were sitting comfortably on 93-2 at lunch before rain washed out the entire post-tea session.
Pagon was unbeaten on 19 and Lambert not out 14.
Openers Xavier Marshall (12) and Brenton Parchment (44) were the wickets to fall.
Narsingh Deonarine was introduced in the 21st over, ahead of Zaheer Mohammed and Devendra Bishoo, and he was successful in his third over when he had Marshall, who had struck Brendon Bess for consecutive boundaries, caught at mid off by Homchand Pooran in the 15th over.
His demise did not deter Parchment who played a few sweetly timed drives off the front foot.
But when well set for his second half century of this year’s tournament, Parchment got a thin edge pushing forward to a Bishoo delivery and was smartly taken by wicketkeeper Darwin Christian.
He batted for 95 minutes and struck seven boundaries from 84 balls.
Lambert joined Pagon and struck Mohammed back over long off for six while Pagon also hit Mohammed past skipper Travis Dowlin at short extra cover for four.
The entire post tea session was lost and when play resumed at 15:40hrs the Jamaicans lost Lambert who added five to his lunchtime score, lbw to Deonarine.
Hinds, Jamaica’s leading run scorer for the season blossomed during this period as Jamaica raced to 122-3 in the 50th over.
Both Hinds and Pagon played positively, mixing aggression with sound defence, with the former hitting Bishoo through the cover area for four after being kept quiet for two overs.
When umpires Clyde Duncan and Wycliffe Mitcham offered the batsmen the light at 17:18hrs, they had added 47 runs for the fourth wicket.
Pagon’s 39, included three boundaries while Hinds struck two sixes and three fours in his 76-minute knock.
Play will resume today the second day, from 09:30hrs with Jamaica looking to pile on the pressure with the bat against a team which lost all four of its matches to date in this year’s tournament, in the match that saw 142 minutes lost to rain and bad light on the first day.
