LUCAS STREET, Barbados, CMC – Leg-spinner Damion Jacobs conjured up a career-best six-wicket haul as Jamaica Scorpions thrashed ICC Americas by five wickets, in their final Group B game of the Regional Super50 here yesterday.
Opting to bowl first at the Windward Cricket Club in the east of the island, Scorpions ripped through the ICC Americas innings to send them tumbling for 133 off 31 overs.
The 32-year-old Jacobs was the main architect of the ICC Americas demise, claiming six for 34 from his 10 overs as the development side collapsed from 89 for two in the 17th over, losing their last eight wickets for 44 runs.
Opener Hamza Tariq top-scored with 32 and Alex Amsterdam hit 28 but they were the only two to pass 20.
In reply, the game appeared open when Scorpions slid to 48 for three in the 10th over but once Andre McCarthy entered to punch a run-a-ball 47 and Devon Thomas, an attacking 43, the result was never in doubt.
Left-arm spinner Saad bin Zafar (2-29) and seamer Mohammed Ali Khan (2-32) picked up two wickets apiece.
Scorpions ended their preliminary round campaign with 28 points from six wins and two defeats while ICC Americas’ record was a sorry one, with a single win from their eight games.
Any hopes of altering their fortunes where quickly dashed when they lost Kamau Leverock (14) and captain Nitish Kumar (1) cheaply with only 23 runs on the board in the eighth over.
Left-hander Leverock was taken at the wicket off speedster Renard Leveridge in the fifth over while Kumar was bowled by left-armer Gavon Brown.
However, Tariq and Amsterdam then counter-attacked in an entertaining stand of 66 which required only 54 deliveries.
While opener Tariq belted three sixes in a 51-ball knock, Amsterdam faced 32 balls and counted five fours. The partnership was threatening when both fell in successive overs.
Jacobs bowled Tariq in the 17th before off-spinner John Campbell bowled Amsterdam in the 18th.
The innings then folded swiftly as Jacobs snared four of the last six wickets to fall.
Scorpions then started their run chase shakily when left-hander Steven Taylor perished for one in the second over, bowled by Mohammed Ali Khan with the score on 12.
In the next over, stand-in captain Chadwick Walton was brilliantly taken at gully by Srimantha Wijeyeratne off seamer Jasdeep Singh for 15.
Slumping at 16 for two, Scorpions were pulled around first by McCarthy, who put on 32 for the third wicket with Paul Palmer (17) and another 66 for the fourth with Thomas.
McCarthy struck three fours and two sixes while Thomas matched him a breezy 39-ball knock which contained five fours and a six.
By the time McCarthy was caught at the wicket off bin Zafar in the 21st over, victory was already assured.
