GRENVILLE, Grenada, CMC – Showing a very healthy appetite for runs, Danza Hyatt and Brenton Parchment enjoyed a batting feast and both scored hundreds to propel title-chasing Jamaica to a solid score against Trinidad and Tobago on the opening day of their crucial final round WICB Regional first class match yesterday.
Sent to bat in the tournament decider at Progress Park, reigning champions Jamaica – needing an outright win to retain their title – closed on 347 for eight with Andrew Richardson (14) and Bevon Brown (0) at the crease.
Hyatt and Parchment posted a raging 200-run opening stand in a dominant batting effort from the Jamaicans, who only lost their momentum after tea when T&T bagged five wickets – all to the leg-spinner Imran Khan.
Hyatt and Parchment gave the Jamaicans a rousing start, lashing chanceless half centuries in the first session and by the lunch break had already posted an imposing 120 without loss.
Hyatt rapidly reached fifty off 53 balls while belting six fours and sixes off medium pacers Navin Stewart and Daron Cruikshank.
Parchment clobbered Khan for two sixes and struck five fours in reaching fifty off 61 balls and was 57 not out at the lunch break, outscored by the usually more restrained Hyatt on 62.
After bringing up his maiden first-class hundred off 126 balls in the post-lunch period, Hyatt fell to off-spinner Amit Jaggernauth, hitting a lofted drive to mid-on where William Perkins ran in to take the catch.
Hyatt struck 104 with 10 fours and five sixes in his innings.
Without addition to the score, the No.3 batsman Donovan Pagon departed first ball, bowled by an in-swinger from medium pacer Shannon Gabriel at 200 for two.
On debut 20-year-old Horace Miller joined Parchment and took the score to 236 for two at tea.
Parchment had reached his hundred off 161 balls with 11 fours and two sixes and resuming after tea on 107, added just two runs before giving Khan the first of his five wickets.
Parchment (109) was caught at short mid-wicket by Justin Guillen at 240 for three.
Khan then sent back captain Tamar Lambert (5), Carlton Baugh (25) and Andre Russell (4) as Jamaica dipped to 331 for six.
No.8 batsman Richardson cracked back-to-back sixes off Khan near the end of play, but the leg-spinning all-rounder responded by dislodging the impressive rookie Miller just before stumps for a well played 66 that included nine fours and a six.
Khan finished with five for 101 off 22 overs with four maidens, supporting Stewart (1-43), Gabriel (1-55) and Jaggernauth (1-66).
The Jamaicans boast an encouraging head-to-head record against T&T in the past decade, nine wins against three losses and two draws in 14 matches, and only an outright win – for maximum 12 points — in this match can take them past Barbados for the title for the third year in a row.
They entered the match with 48 points while Barbados finished their schedule on 57 last week after whipping the Jamaicans by 10 wickets in Trinidad in the sixth round.
SCOREBOARD
JAMAICA 1st Innings
B Parchment c Guillen b Khan 109
D Hyatt c Perkins b Jaggernauth 104
D Pagon c wkp G Mohammed b Gabriel 0
H Miller c S Ganga b Khan 66
*T Lambert c S Ganga b Khan 5
+C Baugh c Guillen b Khan 25
A Russell c J Mohammed b Khan 4
A Richardson not out 14
B Brown not out 0
Extras (b11, lb7, nb3) 21
TOTAL (for 7 wickets – 90 overs) 348
To bat: O Brown, J Dawes
Fall of wickets: 1-200, 2-200, 3-240, 4-276, 5-326, 6-331, 7-346
Bowling: Gabriel 19-1-55-1; Stewart 11-1-43-1; Khan 22-4-101-5; Cruikshank 9-0-45-0; Jaggernauth 21-3-66-1; S Ganga 8-2-20-0.
Toss: Trinidad & Tobago
Umpires: Elwyn Jones, Rogers Laroque
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: *D Ganga, W Perkins, J Guillen, I Khan, J Mohammed, +G Mohammed, N Stewart, D Cruikshank, S Ganga, A Jaggernauth, S Gabriel.