ST AUGUSTINE, Trinidad, CMC – A career-best spell from leg-spinner Javed Leacock topped a blistering 94 from Chadwick Walton, and Barbados Pride beat defending champions Jamaica Scorpions by 47 runs in the West Indies Super50 Cup yesterday in Trinidad.
Leacock, playing only his sixth List “A” match, grabbed four for 43 from eight overs, and the Scorpions, chasing 259 to win, were bowled out for 211 in 44.3 overs in the sixth match of the 50 overs-a-side tournament at the Frank Worrell Field.
Walton smashed six fours and six sixes from 112 balls to lead the Scorpions batting, Jeavor Royal had a late flourish of 44 from 34 balls, and West Indies Test vice-captain Jermaine Blackwood made a resilient 30, but no other batsman reached double figures.
Left-arm pacer Dominic Drakes, son of Pride head coach Vasbert Drakes, the former West Indies all-rounder, took two for 14 from 3.3 overs, and Roston Chase supported with two for 37 from eight overs to keep things steady in the middle of the Scorpions chase.
The result gave the Pride, beaten semi-finalists last year, a winning start to the tournament, but it condemned the Scorpions to a rock start to their defence, as they slid to their second defeat in their first two matches after Leeward Islands Hurricanes humbled them by eight wickets in a low-scoring contest two days earlier at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy.
Drakes made the breakthrough for Pride when he got left-handed opener Kirk McKenzie caught at mid-off for three in the fourth over, but Blackwood joined Walton and they made sure the Scorpions did not lose another wicket in the Power Play to reach 60 for one after 10 overs.
Chase struck in his fourth and sixth overs to respectively remove Blackwood caught at mid-wicket, and Andre McCarthy, an old nemesis of the Pride, caught at long-on for nine, and Scorpions stumbled to 109 for three at the halfway stage.
The Pride bowlers – specifically Chase, Kyle Mayers, and left-arm Raymon Reifer – continued to bowl steadily, and three wickets – two to Leacock – fell in the leg-spinner’s first over.
Nkrumah Bonner was run out for nine off his first ball in a bad mix-up with Walton before Leacock exploited the susceptibility of Scorpions and West Indies Twenty20 International captain Rovman Powell to leg-spin and got him caught at slip for a first-ball duck, and trapped newcomer Shalome Parnell lbw for a fourth-ball duck.
Leacock then got Fabian Allen caught at slip for two in the 33rd over, and the Scorpions slumped to 125 for seven.
This was a signal to attack for Walton, whose 50 came from 52 balls, and he helped to spoil the figures of Chase and Leacock with an attractive array of stroke in the company of Royal, and they put on 53 for the seventh wicket to give the Scorpions a sniff of a come-from-behind win.
Scorpions entered the final 10 overs needing 81 to win, but Leacock foiled their plans for a dramatic finish when he got Walton caught at long-on in the 41st over.
Earlier, half-centuries from Shamarh Brooks, and Pride and West Indies One-day International captain Shai Hope helped their side reached 258 for six after they were sent in to bat.
Brooks struck three fours and one six in a 69 from 89 balls, and Hope supported with 65 from 76 balls that included four fours and one six.
They added 88 for the third wicket after West Indies Test captain Kraigg Brathwaite made 45 and he too, put on 88 for the second wicket with Brooks after Parnell got left-handed opener Kyle Mayers caught behind for one.
When Hope was caught behind off pacer Nicholson Gordon in the 45th over, Pride were 202 for four, but Drakes came to the crease and beefed up the total with two fours and three sixes in 40 not out off only 18 balls.
Parnell and Gordon both ended with two wickets for the Scorpions.
The tournament continues with a double-header on Saturday when Leeward Islands face West Indies Academy at Queen’s Park Oval in a contest starting at 9 a.m. (East Caribbean Time), and Guyana Harpy Eagles meet hosts Trinidad & Tobago Red Force at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in a day-night contest starting at 1 p.m. (EC Time).
