Jermaine Blackwood was denied a century, more so the opportunity to save the game for his team, as the Guyana Jaguars began their title defense with a 181-run mauling over the Jamaica Scorpions yesterday when round one of the 2016/17 Digicel Professional Cricket League (PCL) Regional 4-Day tournament concluded at Providence.
Set 329 to win on the final day, Jamaica were blown away for 147, despite the resistance of West Indies Test player Blackwood, whose grueling 96, with 13 fours and two sixes, provided his team with a slim chance of drawing the match on the final day.
As they showed in the previous seasons, Guyana’s bowlers were on point during their spells, ensuring that the required 20 wickets were snapped up with perfect timing and relative ease. Leading the bowling for the champs again, were left-arm spinners Gudakesh Motie and Veerasammy Permaul, who finished with eight wickets each. The formidable duo strangled the Jamaicans.
Motie, the former West Indies U19 spinner bagged 4-35, to go along with his first innings 4-66, while Permaul followed up his earlier haul of 5-60, with 3-63. Pacer Keon Joseph provided the venom, with figures of 3-18. These outstanding bowling performances took Guyana’s unbeaten tally to 19 straight games over the past two seasons.
The Jaguars had declared their second innings at 238-4 on Sunday afternoon, following good contributions from, skipper Leon Johnson (69), Vishaul Singh (71), Shimron Hetmyer (48) and Rajendra Chandrika (34).
The Scorpions began the final day on 9-2, and were dealt their first blow when Joseph, for the second time in the match, proved too hot to handle for his ex-teammate Trevon Griffith, who had his stumps shattered by the right-arm pacer for 13. Blackwood then joined the other overnight batsman Jason Dawes, who had his innings cut short by Motie, as Joseph took a good catch at deep long-off. Andre McCarthy’s innings was also short-lived, LBW for three, after being struck plum on the pads by Permaul. Rain interrupted play at 11:00hrs, with Blackwood and Chadwick Walton, at the wicket, and the Scorpions dangling at 47-5.
Following the two hour rain delay which stretched into the lunch and tea intervals, play resumed under brilliant sunshine with the Jamaicans seeking to save the match. After enduring a period of confinement, Jamaica took advantage of a few mistakes by the champs, including a missed catch in the slips by Johnson off of Permaul, to give Blackwood a life with his score on 41.
Blackwood made full use of the missed chance, and reached his 50 off 149 balls, with a boundary through mid-wicket off Permaul. The momentum then swung in the Jaguars’ favour with the fall of two quick wickets, both via the LBW route, as Walton who was pinned by Motie for a painstaking 13, and Green who was trapped by Permaul for a duck.
As the final hour of play began, the visitors were reeling at 93-7.Motie continued to chip away at the batting order, removing Damion Jacobs (10), caught by wicketkeeper Anthony Bramble, and the opposition’s skipper Miller, LBW for 4.
The final nail in the coffin was hammered in by Joseph operating from for the Media Center End, whose short delivery with the new ball unsettled Blackwood, who fended it to the wicket-keeper, as the Guyanese celebrated their well-earned victory.
