Despite Jermaine Blackwood’s 81, Veerasammy Permaul’s four for 39 saw Jamaica Scorpions losing their final six wickets for 23 runs to give Guyana Jaguars the advantage at the end of the opening day of the fourth round West Indies Championship match at the National Stadium, Providence.
Scorpions won the toss and elected to bat but consistent wickets saw them only managing 187 in 79.5 overs. Jaguars then closed off the day’s play on 17 without loss after eight overs with Chandrapaul Hemraj on 13 and Tagenarine Chanderpaul on four.
Out-of-favour West Indies batsman Blackwood was the lynchpin to Scorpion’s batting with 10 boundaries in his innings, one of which was carved through backward point off of Permaul to bring up his 37th half century. However, his 185-ball, four-hour stay at the crease was broken when the left-arm spinner got the ball to spin enough off the brown wicket to clip the top of the off stump, the loud noise resonating in the near empty stadium.