After a spirited effort in the last 20 overs of the Guyana innings to keep what appeared to be an imposing target to one of reasonable proportions, Barbados' chances disappeared when the clouds that hovered over the Kaiser Sports Club for the whole day finally burst in mid-afternoon.
At the time, Barbados, chasing a reduced target of 208 in 38 overs after the umpires' reluctance to delay the start of their innings by an hour because of a very faint drizzle, were 72 for three in the 15th over.
The heavy rain, which intervened at 3:45 p.m., gave no hope of a resumption and at 4:36 p.m. the match was declared a no-result because both teams did not have the opportunity to bat for 25 overs.
Under the playing conditions of the tournament, Guyana moved into their fourth successive regional limited-overs final by virtue of having a superior net run-rate in the zonal competition.
Barbados, runners-up in Zone 2, had a rate of 0.88, while Guyana, the Zone 1 winners, exactly doubled that figure with a rate of 1.76.
It was, according to captain Philo Wallace, a tough way to bow of the competition, but he gave low marks to umpires Basil Morgan and Thomas Wilson for the long delay in getting the Barbados innings started.
``I didn't see any reason why we should have lost an hour at the beginning. We could have started at 1:45 p.m. but the umpires thought otherwise,'' Wallace told The SUN on Saturday.
A crowd of about 2 000 at the ground on Jamaica's north coast would have been expecting a competitive battle after Guyana, on the strength of Shivnarine Chanderpaul's scintillating maiden regional limited-overs century and captain Carl Hooper's 76 formed the basis of their 237 for eight off the allotted 50 overs.
To their credit, Barbados, behind the efforts of mainly fast medium Hendy Broomes, left-arm spinner Winston Reid and pacer Hendy Bryan's dismissals of Hooper and Chanderpaul in the 44th over, limited the scoring to 88 in the last 20 overs.
Wallace, apparently frustrated by the break and an asking rate which climbed from 4.76 to 5.78 through no fault of Barbados, inexplicably and irresponsibly tried the heave the first ball from Reon King over the mid-wicket boundary.
The ball brushed his pad and knocked the leg stump out of the ground, the first time in the competition the in-form Barbados captain had been dismissed by a bowler.
Floyd Reifer, a struggler of late, was sent in at No. 3 and responded by playing his best hand of the tournament, expertly moving his feet to the spinners and driving fluently on both sides of the wicket.
It helped Barbados to maintain a rate of five runs an over and Reifer was on 32 off 37 balls with three fours and a straight six off Neil McGarrell's left-arm when the rain set in. By then, Barbados had also lost Sherwin Campbell, run out attempting sharp single to backward square and Adrian Griffith, caught at long-on off McGarrell.
Barbados could not have asked for a more sensational start to the match.
With conditions ideally suited for seam bowlers, they rocked the Guyana innings with the wickets of Clayton Lambert, Andrew Gonsalves and Keith Semple.
Spectators had hardly settled when the left-handed Lambert, flicking at the day's second ball, provided a comfortable catch to gully.
His young but potentially explosive partner Gonsalves followed his example of playing and across the line and skied a catch to cover.
When Keith Semple edged Collins to the keeper in the fifth over to leave Guyana in further disarray, there were some who felt the match was as good as over as a contest.
But as rapidly as Barbados had gained the early initiative, it was just as swiftly taken away by the commanding Chanderpaul, who came and immediately dominated the bowling with a series of delightful strokes.
It was fascinating stuff from Chanderpaul. Here are some of the strokes he played in a four-over period: Broomes was pulled for four, lifted over long-off for six and hoisted over extra-cover for four in successive balls.
Collins was just as disdainfully treated in the next over in where he was cut for four, effortlessly flicked over backward square-leg for six and driven through extra-cover for four.
In the twinkling of an eye, Chanderpaul arrived to his half-century off 38 balls with eight fours and two sixes.
He lost Nicholas deGroot in the 13th over to a miscued pull that lobbed into mid-on's hand, but Hooper joined him to make sure Guyana had a challenging total.