PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, (CMC) – Trinidad and Tobago produced an incisive bowling display to rattle Jamaica and take control of their Regional Four-Day game here yesterday.
Playing on the second day of the sixth round contest, the hosts bundled out the Jamaicans for 180 and then coasted to 94 for one at the close, an overall lead of 158 runs heading into Sunday’s penultimate day at Queen’s Park Oval.Test batsman Darren Bravo ended a run of low scores to be 45 not out while the in-form Evin Lewis was nearing his second half-century of the game on 43 not out.
Jamaica would have been disappointed with their batting performance after resuming the day on 24 without loss, in pursuit of T&T’s first innings total of 244.
Andre McCarthy hit 45 in the middle order, opener Jon-Ross Campbell got 31 and Nikita Miller, 28 not out, but none of their main run-scorers showed up.
Fast bowler Shannon Gabriel finished with three for 48 while pacer Marlon Richards (2-32) and leg-spinner Imran Khan (2-41) collected two wickets apiece.
T&T found success early in the morning’s play when John Campbell added just eight to his overnight ten before he was bowled by Gabriel to leave Jamaica on 39 for one.
Jamaica then lost four more wickets for 51 runs to slump to 95 for six, just after lunch, with Gabriel doing most of the damage.
He bowled Jermaine Blackwood with one that nipped back and removed captain Tamar Lambert for a first ball ‘duck’, caught at first slip by Kieron Pollard.
Jamaica got a reprieve through a 42-run, seventh wicket stand between McCarthy and Miller, but once McCarthy edged to Bravo at slip, the innings declined quickly.
With a lead of 64 runs on first innings, T&T lost the out-of-sorts Adrian Barath early when he missed a straight one from fast bowler Jerome Taylor and was lbw for two, at six for one.
However, Bravo and Lewis then combined to negate any further Jamaican success, posting 88 for the second wicket.
The left-handed Bravo has hit five fours and a six off 84 balls while Lewis has counted four boundaries in facing 112 deliveries.