The Guyana Jaguars find themselves in an unfamiliar position of having to wait on the outcome of the Leeward Islands Hurricanes against a strengthened Barbados Pride side in the final match of the Cricket West Indies (CWI) Regional Four-Day Championships next week to know whether they will be five-time champions.
The Leon Johnson-led unit, according to the latest CWI points standing, has amassed 154.2 points while Hurricanes, with one match to go are on 131.2 points.
Mathematically, Jaguars, a side that has won the last four seasons convincingly, cannot be declared the champions since the maximum points that can be earned in a match is 24. The Hurricanes require a preposterous 23.2 points to dethrone the kings of Regional First Class Cricket.
Since the introduction of the new structure post-2015, a team will be awarded 12 points for the win and would have to earn the other 12 through outstanding performances.
In order to have a maximum of five batting points, Hurricanes would be required to score 400 runs or more in 110 overs of their first innings, a feat yet to be achieved. The 400-run landmark was only accomplished once by Hurricanes when they made 425 against Trinidad and Tobago Red Force after the Christmas break but that came from 126.4 overs. In fact, no team has been able to achieve this target in the season with Windward Islands Volcanoes and Jaguars (twice) being the only instances of teams passing 400 runs but soaking up more than 110 overs.
Devon Thomas (653), Montcin Hodge (647) and Keacy Carty (515) have been the only three batsmen to score centuries for the Hurricanes and will need to do so briskly. Hodge and Carty are both striking at a rate of 42 while Thomas, who has six half centuries has a strike rate of 67.
With the ball, Hurricanes will need to dismiss Pride in less than 110 overs to take away the three bowling points available.
Their fast bowlers will also need to take 16 wickets in the match since 0.2 points is awarded per wickets taken by the seamers.
While this is not impossible, off-spinner, Rahkeem Cornwall has done the job with the ball for the Hurricanes, sitting comfortably at the top of the tree as their leading wicket taker with 51 wickets.
But the side has shown its ability to not depend on Cornwall with the ball as their fast men bagged 17 wickets in their last match. Alzarri Joseph leads the bunch with 27 wickets while Sheen Berridge has so far collected 25 scalps.
With Sheldon Cottrell expected to be back in the side to boost their pace department along with the services of Jeremiah Louis and Quinton Boatswain, Hurricanes can still knock on the door.
