consecutive four-day title
…flatten T&T by innings and 72 runs
GRENVILLE, Grenada,  (CMC) – Jamaica marched to their third consecutive four-day championship title when they flattened Trinidad & Tobago by an innings and 72 runs just after lunch on the third day of their final round WICB Regional first-class match yesterday.
Following on 235 behind on first innings, T&T collapsed to 163 all out with the spin pair of Bevon Brown and Odean Brown slicing through the lower half of the batting after the regional limited overs kings had started the day in strife on 66 for four at Progress Park.
By securing maximum 12 points with the victory, the Jamaicans climbed to the top of the standings on 60 points, relegating Barbados, who ended their schedule last week on 57 points after handing Jamaica their only loss of the season.
“A third straight title says a lot for Jamaica and our cricket,” winning captain Tamar Lambert said after the match.
“We played consistently over the past three years and that is the reason why we have won. We have worked hard work in practice sessions and tried to execute on match day,” Lambert added.
With T&T beginning the day needing a further 169 runs to avoid an innings defeat, Jamaica got the ideal start and were celebrating as early as the first over of the morning when pacer Andrew Richardson removed Sherwin Ganga for 16
The left-hander flashed at a delivery outside his off-stump and edged a catch to wicket-keeper Carlton Baugh.
Daron Cruikshank joined night-watchman Amit Jaggernauth and the pair resisted for over an hour and a half in a 47-run stand before being engaged in a terrible mix-up that left Jaggernauth run-out for 18 at 114 for six.
Imran Khan linked up with Cruikshank 20 minutes before lunch but off-spinner Bevon Brown quickly broke the partnership and hastened the result by dislodging Cruikshank (35) and Gibran Mohammed (0) with successive deliveries in the last over before the break.
Cruikshank was caught at forward short leg after belting five boundaries and Mohammed departed first ball, caught at first slip to send T&T staggered into the lunch break at 132 for eight.
On resumption, Navin Stewart (16) missed an attempted pull shot and was bowled by leg-spinner Odean Brown, who closed out the match by getting rid of Khan (22) caught by Danza Hyatt at slip to wrap the game 20 minutes into the post-lunch session.
Jamaica finished the season with five wins and a loss and a championship win that hardly resembled their 2009 triumph when they were huge winners with 106 points, 27 ahead of runners-up Windward Islands (79) in the extended double round-robin format
T&T’s fluctuating campaign ended with two wins, two draws and two losses.
Apart from their stinging first-round loss – by 151 runs – to Combined Campuses and Colleges, this was T&T’s worst effort of the season and captain Daren Ganga blamed the result on the batting failure.
“We never really competed in our first innings and Jamaica capitalised on that and took the momentum into the second innings,” Ganga said.
“We didn’t bat well in both innings and it’s been a problem this season, the inconsistency of the batting. Our batting never lived up to expectations,” he added.
The result improved Jamaica’s head-to-head record against T&T in the past decade to 10 wins against three losses and two draws in 15 matches.