Jamaica ended the third day of their four-day contest against Guyana at Sabina Park yesterday with a glorious opportunity to make it two victories from two matches in the regional Busta Cup cricket tournament.
In a wonderful recovery after trailing the co-defending champions on first innings, Jamaica, inspired by some splendid bowling from pacer Laurie Williams, offspinner Nehemiah Perry, and right-arm legspinner Brian Murphy, bowled themselves into a good position to make a final bid for victory when play resumes on today's final day.
When bad light stopped play at 5.43 with 14 overs still to be bowled, the scoreboard read, Guyana 215 and 118 for seven, Jamaica 208, and with the visitors leading by only 125 runs, with captain Nicholas deGroot nursing a sprained ankle and unlikely to be at his best even if he does ignore the pain and bat, the odds are on the home team to march to victory.
As well positioned as they are, victory for Jamaica, however, is not a foregone conclusion - not if Ramnaresh Sarwan, who will return this morning on 62 after an impressive performance, finds enough support to increase the lead by another 40 or 50 runs, and if that happens and remembering Jamaica's struggle during their first innings, not if the Guyanese bowlers, especially offspinner Gavin Nedd and right-arm legspinner Mahendra Nagamootoo, bowl as well on a last day pitch as they did on the second day when Jamaica struggled to 177 for eight.
Resuming yesterday with captain James Adams on 52, Shane Ford on 10, and the lead still 39 runs away, Jamaica, despite a good effort by Ford and last man Mais, failed by eight runs to achieve their first goal.
Adams, the man on whom so much depended, fell for 64 at 190 for nine when, in the seond over of the second new ball, he drove pacer Kevin Darlington to Sarwan at extra-cover, and after defending stubbornly for 40 minutes and eight overs while scoring four runs, Mais, playing forward, edged Mahendra Nagamootoo to brother Vishal Nagamootoo behind the stumps to leave Ford not out on 23.
With less than two days to go at that stage, and despite Guyana's suspect batting line-up, the odds were on a drawn match - especially with Clayton Lambert, opening the innings in place of deGroot who was injured during his morning's workout, reeling off a lovely hook off Williams and looking dangerous, with Williams out of the attack after two overs, and with the rain delaying the pre-lunch start with Guyana on 17 without loss.
Immediately after the resumption, however, Adams called back Williams, the pacer, who finished with figures of three for 19 off 14 overs, handed Jamaica the prized wicket of Lambert in the first over, and with Perry and Murphy spinning the ball appreciably and picking up two wickets each, Guyana lost men at regular intervals as Jamaica, despite two dropped catches, turned the screws on a set of batsmen which, but for Sarwan, were unable to cope.
The left-handed Lambert was legbefore wicket for 14 at 17 for one, and when rain washed away another 65 minutes and Tony Powell, diving across Robert Samuels at second slip, dropped Azeemul Haniff off pacer Dwight Mais with the batsman on three and Guyana 23 for one, it appeared once again that the game was destined for a draw.
Day 4: Nagamootoo destroys Jamaica
Score: Guyana 215 and 149, Jamaica 208 and 128.
Jamaica suffered a setback in their hunt for a place in the semi-finals of the Busta Cup when they lost to co-defending champions Guyana at Sabina Park yesterday.
Set a victory target of 157 runs in a minimum of 74 overs, Jamaica, who defeated the other co-defending champions, the Leeward Islands by an innings and 58 runs in their opening match, were skittled for 128 and, after starting favourites to beat the team which went down to Trinidad and Tobago by an innings and 37 runs in their opening game and which batted one short in the second innings, lost the match by 28 runs after losing their last six wickets for 37 runs.
At tea, Jamaica, on 91 for four with captain James Adams and Christopher Gayle at the crease, appeared well-placed before they succumbed to the spin and bounce of Mahendra Nagamootoo who destroyed them with a burst of five wickets in a spell of 10.4 overs during which he conceded a mere 10 runs to finish with figures of six for 24 off 16.4 overs.
With offspinner Gavin Nedd making it 91 for five when he bowled Chris Gayle for zero through his defence with the third delivery after the interval, rightarm legspinner Nagamootoo stepped up at the other end and made it 93 for six with his first delivery when Adams, 29, pulled a short delivery straight to substitute fielder Andre Percival at midwicket.
In his following over, Nagamootoo made it 98 for seven when he removed Nehemiah Perry for four - the batsman, playing defensively across a well pitched legspinner which bounced awkwardly, offering a catch off the leading edge to Azeemur Haniff at silly mid-off.
Laurie Williams, after fighting for survival and scoring eight runs, after struggling to smother the spin and to get on top of the bounce, strayed down the pitch and was stumped at 120 for eight; Shane Ford, beaten through the air by a slower, well flighted delivery, tapped a return catch to the bowler and departed for 17 at 123 for nine; and with the innings in ruins, Brian Murphy swiped at the legspinner and edged a high catch to backward point to end the match.
Jamaica's problems, however, started before that. It started when Robert Samuels, going back, was trapped leg before wicket for one at seven for one by pacer Colin Stuart, it continued, in the face of some skilful bowling changes by acting captain Clayton Lambert, when Wavell Hinds, after playing and missing and scoring six runs, after probably breathing a sigh of relief when Kevin Darlington replaced Nagamootoo, drove the pacer low but straight to Nedd at mid-off at 38 for two, and when Tony Powell, on 12 and probably fearful of the fielders stationed at forward short-leg and