The Guyana Jaguars and the Jamaica Scorpions were locked in a tense battle for outright honours at the close of the second day of their West Indies Championship fourth round encounter at the Providence National Stadium ground yesterday.
After battling their way to a mere three-run first innings lead, the Guyana Jaguars bowlers struck back in the late afternoon with three wickets.
Jaguars resumed on 17 without loss and managed 190 from 83.1 overs in reply to the Scorpions 187.
The five-time defending champions however, left Scorpions reeling at 50-3 from 14 overs at stumps.
Scorpions’ openers came out with an intent to bully the Jaguars seamers as skipper, John Campbell waded into frontline pacer, Nial Smith, hitting him for consecutive boundaries. Campbell took the same mindset to off-spinner, Kevin Sinclair who was smashed for two sixes, one of which went into the Presidential Suite over long on. However, Sinclair had the final laugh as he broke the 49-run opening partnership by trapping Campbell leg before wicket, a dismissal which was celebrated by his trademark backflip. Campbell made 31 from 30 deliveries. His opening partner, Assad Fudadin is still at the crease on 13 not out but has lost Nicholson Gordon and Jermaine Blackwood who both failed to score to Veerasammy Permaul.
Earlier, in overcast conditions, Jaguars’ lost Tagenarine Chanderpaul who added just one to his overnight score of four before Peat Salmon copped his maiden first-class wicket via leg before wicket.
After a 32-minute stoppage due to rain, the hosts then slipped to 54 for three with Derval Green (2-29) striking in quick succession.
Leon Johnson opted to leave a delivery alone and was bowled by Green which shocked the near 60 spectators cheering on their team in the Red Stand while a low catch by Fudadin at gully that was deliberated upon by the umpires sent Chandrapaul Hemraj on his way for a 67-ball 38, laced with three boundaries.
Nevertheless, Christopher Barnwell (34) and Vishual Singh (22) teamed up to build a 59-run partnership for the fourth wicket before Jamie Merchant (3-38) removed both batsmen, signalling a collapse that reduced the Jaguars from 113 for four to 119 for seven.
The defending champions were indebted to Raymon Reifer and Veerasammy Permaul who piloted an eight-wicket stand of 65 that brought them close to a first innings lead.
Permaul looked better than most of the top order batsmen, carving six boundaries during his 87-minute stay at the crease.
He scored 35 from 63 balls before a ball from Patrick Harty (3-30) crept under the bat and rolled onto his stumps.
With Nial Smith and Keon Joseph unable to score, Reifer was left stranded on 33 from 104 balls after spending over two hours in the middle.
Day three resumes at 09.30 hours.
