By Colin Benjamin in Barbados
Jamaica defeated the Windward Islands by five-wickets in the first semi-final of the 2012 Caribbean Twenty20 tournament yesterday at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados and advanced to the final scheduled for today.
In brilliant afternoon sunshine, on a surface expected to assist the quick bowlers, after they had lost the toss, a highly efficient bowling performance from Jamaica’s five-man attack aided them in restricting the Islanders to a paltry 98/8 of their allotted 20 overs. And despite some minor innings’ hiccups, they attained their target scoring 99/5 with two overs to spare.
The result means that the boys from the ‘Land of wood and water’ have advanced to their second regional twenty20 final, following their appearance in the previous Stanford Twenty20 final in 2008.
The opening exchanges of the match saw an intriguing battle between the Jamaican bowlers and the tournament leading run-scorer Johnson Charles.
While Charles opened his shoulders and hit five well struck boundaries to various part of the oval, wickets kept falling around him.
The procession commenced in the third over when two wickets fell. First, Miles Bascombe was run out via a Nkrumah Bonner throw from square-leg after a total miscommunication between him and Charles. Then in the penultimate delivery a superb in-swinging Yorker from Krishmar Santokie sent Andre Fletcher packing for a golden duck, plummeting the Windwards to 12/2.
Jamaica seized the initiative when another double-wicket over occurred in eighth over of the innings slumping the Islanders to 36/4. Leg-spinner Odean Brown accounted for Devon Smith caught at short fine-leg and then he snatched the “big fish” Charles, caught at the wicket as he attempted a booming cut shot.
With the Dave Bernard-led side in full control at this stage, the remaining Windward batters, except for Linden James with an unbeaten 37, struggled to come to grips with the tight Jamaican bowling and their innings never moved out of first gear into the required third gear flourish at the end.
In pursuit of that mediocre target, openers Danza Hyatt and Bonner got off to a positive start moving smoothly along to 33-0 in the opening six power play overs.
The Windwards fought back claiming five wickets for 51 runs. And when Darren Sammy had his West Indian team mate Marlon Samuels caught behind with the score on 84/5 in the 16th over, hopes of an upset began to float.
However, it did not materialize and when all-rounder Andre Russell hit Sammy for two consecutive boundaries to the third-man fence and to the mid-wicket boundary, the Jamaicans, who are also the four-time first-class champions and reigning Super50 champions continued their quest to add the Twenty20 title to their illustrious trophy cabinet of the last few years.
Scoreboard
WINDWARD ISLANDS (20 overs maximum)
J. Charles c wkpr Baugh b Brown 29
M. Bascombe run out 0
A. Fletcher b Santokie 0
D.S. Smith c Cotterrell b Brown 6
+L. James not out 37
L. Sebastien b Cotterrell 11
*D. Sammy run out 2
S. Shillingford b Cotterrell 4
G. Mathurin b Santokie 4
D. Johnson not out 1
Extras (lb1, w3) 4
TOTAL (8 wkts, 20 overs) 98
N. Pascal did not bat
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-20, 3-33, 4-36, 5-76, 6-85, 7-93, 8-97
Bowling: Santokie 4-0-23-2, Cotterrell 4-0-20-2, Russell 4-0-25-0, Brown 4-0-15-2, Miller 4-0-14-0
JAMAICA (target: 99 off 20 overs)
N. Bonner lbw b Sebastien 19
D. Hyatt run out 14
M. Samuels c wkpr James b *Sammy 16
S. Findlay c wkpr James b Shillingford 1
*D. Bernard lbw Mathurin 22
+C. Baugh not out 10
A. Russell not out 13
Extras (lb3, w1) 4
TOTAL (5 wkts, 18 overs) 99
N. Miller, K. Santokie, O. Brown, S. Cotterrell did not bat
Fall of wickets: 1-33, 2-33, 3-36, 4-73, 5-78
Bowling: Mathurin 4-0-18-1, Pascal 1-0-10-0, Johnson 2-0-11-0, Shillingford 4-0-15-1, Sebastien 4-0-20-1, *Sammy 3-0-22-1
Result: Jamaica won by five wickets (12 balls remaining)
Series: Jamaica advance to the Final
Toss: Windwards
Man-of-the-Match: O. Brown (Jamaica)
Umpires: G. Brathwaite, J. Wilson
TV umpire: P.Nero
Match referee: A. Griffith
Reserve umpire: R. Brathwaite
Caption: Shane Shillingford is comprehensively bowled by Sheldon Cotterell. (Photo in sportpics as Shillingford bowled)
