SUNIL Narine produced another breath-taking bowling performance to lead Trinidad and Tobago to victory and into the semi-final round of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Regional Super50 Competition at the Everest Cricket Club (ECC) ground yesterday. The off-spinner claimed 5-37 from ten overs to complete his second five-wicket haul in three matches as they stopped Jamaica on 154-9 to win by 36 runs. Jamaica won the toss and gave T&T first strike, then managed to restrict them to 197 in 50 overs.
However, there was a rain-interrupted period during Jamaica’s chase, which caused the Duckworth Lewis method to be used. The revised target was now 191 from 40 overs at which point Jamaica needed 136 from 24 overs with five wickets in hand.
Narine claimed the first five wickets which were: Kennar Lewis (6), Xavier Marshall (0), Chris Gayle (31), Shawn Findlay (2) and Chadwick Walton (0), in that order, as Jamaica slumped to 43–5 in the first 13 overs.
Gayle threatened the T&T victory early on with two big sixes and two boundaries in his 32-ball innings but the game opened up when he was caught behind off Narine.
At the end of the 16th over rain entered the ground and stopped play with Jamaica on 55–5. Tamar Lambert and Danza Hyatt were not out on 11 and two, respectively.
At the resumption Hyatt (25) and Andre Russell (31) gave the Jamaicans some hope along with Lambert who lasted the entire innings but because of poor shot selection Hyatt lost his wicket while a miscommunication caused Russell to be run-out.
Nikita Miller and Krishmar Santokie were the final two wickets to fall as Odean Brown and Lambert survived the Trinidad attack to get Jamaica past the 150-run mark and defy T&T two Super Bonus points.
Dave Mohammed (2-34) and Samuel Badree (1-33) supported Narine with the ball.
In the first session of the day, Jamaica started straightaway with two maidens, then the opening pair of William Perkins and Craig Guillen began finding the boundaries off Santokie and Russell.
Perkins (14) fell lbw to Nikita Miller then in the next over Cuillen drove and was caught at cover by Xavier Marshall, T&T were 28-2 in the ninth over.
Jamaica tightened up on the attack as T&T got to 50 in the 21st over with Bravo and captain Daren Ganga on 12 and 10, respectively. A short while after Bravo was struck on his hip by a Shawn Findlay delivery and retired hurt bringing Jason Mohammed to the middle. Ganga and Mohammed started to build a nice partnership but the captain was removed for 30 by leg-spinner Brown. T&T were 80-3.
Sherwin Ganga replaced his brother in the middle but did not last long as he was trapped lbw to Findlay for just two while Mohammed kept the board ticking at the other end. Sherwin was removed in the 33rd over as T&T continued struggling to score.
The Jamaican captain had a rather conservative field to keep the pressure on but Bravo immediately signalled his intention to score and was given the opportunity when they took the batting powerplay at the 35th over with the score on 111–4.
A welcome 35 runs were scored in the five-over powerplay as the pair of Bravo and Mohammed scored boundaries and got the maximum from big shots all around the ground. Bravo who was still affected by the hit throughout the innings reached his half-century in fine style with a boundary.
Bravo was caught in slip by Gayle on 55 off of a delivery by Miller then the run rate became low and stable.
Jason Mohammed contributed 43 before he met his demise but along with Rayan Emrit (17) managed to push their side to 196–8.
Miller was on target again for Jamaica as he finished with 3–32; Russell finished with 2–39 while Santokie, Brown and Findlay bagged one wicket each.
Though Jamaica lost they have still finished atop Group B with 14 points while Trinidad took second place with 12 points, CCC followed with 8 points while defending champions Leeward Island are still four points under.
Tomorrow, Guyana will play T&T in the first match at the Guyana National Stadium in the first semi-final which commences at 13:30hrs. The following day Jamaica will meet Sagicor HPC in the other semi-final which is also a day/night match to commence at the same time.

SCOREBOARD

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO (maximum 50 overs)
W. Perkins lbw b Miller    14
J. Guillen c Marshall b Russell    13
D. Ganga c (sub.) Blackwood b Brown    30
D.J. Bravo c Gayle b Miller    55
J. Mohammed c (sub) Elliott b Russell    43
S. Ganga lbw b Findlay    2
K. Cooper c wkp. Walton b Miller    7
R. Emrit not out    17
S. Badree c Miller b Santokie    6
S. Narine not out    3
Extras: (w-6)    6
Total: (8 wkts, 50 overs)    196
D. Mohammed did not bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-28, 2-28, 3-79, 4-93, 5-154, 6-162, 7-178, 8-187.
Bowling: Russell 10-2-39-2 (w-1), Santokie 12-2-57-1 (w-1), Miller 12-2-32-3 (w-1), Findlay 9-0-38-1 (w-2), Brown 7-0-30-1 (w-1).

JAMAICA (target: 191 off 40 overs)
C. Gayle c wkp. Perkins b Narine    31
K. Lewis c Guillen b Narine    6
X. Marshall stp. Perkins b Narine    0
T. Lambert not out    48
S. Findlay c & b Narine    2
C. Walton lbw b Narine    0
D. Hyatt c Emrit b D. Mohammed    7
A. Russell run-out    31
N. Miller lbw b Badree 2
K. Santokie lbw b D. Mohammed    2
O. Brown not out    9
Extras: (lb-2, w-14)    16
Total: (9 wkts, 40 overs)     154
Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-11, 3-41, 4-46, 5-46, 6-71, 7-108, 8-118, 9-134.
Bowling: Narine 10-2-37-5 (w-1), Badree 7-0-33-1 (w-3), S. Ganga 10-3-17-0 (w-2), D. Mohammed 6-0-34-2, K. Cooper 2-0-22-0 (w-8), R. Emrit 4-0-6-0, J. Mohammed 1-0-3-0.
Points: T&T 4, Jamaica 0