KINGSTON, Jamaica, (CMC) - In a match where fortunes changed almost every half an hour, Jamaica pulled out a few last-minute tricks to snatch a two-run victory from Trinidad and Tobago in the final game in Zone A of the Red Stripe Bowl preliminary round at Sabina Park yesterday.
Having posted 210 for nine wickets from their 50 overs after their top order failed, Jamaica hung on just long enough to dismiss the Trinidadians for 208 from 48.4 overs despite a solid guiding knock of 71 from captain Daren Ganga.
The result completed a 100 per cent win record for the Jamaicans in the zone stage of the tournament.
Trinidad and Tobago inserted Jamaica and even while resting their ace pacer Merv Dillon after his lightning accident, they were able to blunt the brimful batting line-up for 76 for five.
Reyad Emrit, replacing Dillon produced a beauty to which Brenton Parchment was awkwardly late and had his middle stump jolted.
From 14 for one, Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds added 40 but then Hinds went for 22, and Gayle (15) was trapped lbw trying to sweep part-time spinner Imran Jan, to make it 63 for three.
Dave Mohamed, the left-arm spinner who confused all the Jamaican batsmen except Gareth Breese, then removed Marlon Samuels (13) and Ricardo Powell (6) in two deliveries to leave himself on a hat-trick which he never got.
Samuels attempted a huge lift but was taken down at long off by Theodore Modeste, while Powell was caught behind by Andy Jackson.
From 76 for five, the score moved to 96 for six when Robert Samuels (7), swept Dinanath Ramnarine in his first over, the 32nd overall, and was caught on the mid-wicket boundary.
There was then a crucial late order rally by the lengthy Jamaican batting line-up with Dave Bernard and Carlton Baugh jointly top-scoring with 34.
Bernard hit three fours from 55 balls while Baugh’s innings lasted for 38 balls and included four boundaries.
Breese also chipped in at the end with 21 and Darren Powell struck a quick-fire 22 from 15 balls to get the Jamaican total to a figure that proved just beyond the reach of Trinidad and Tobago in the end.
T&T had only themselves to blame as they dropped four clear chances, Baugh twice, and Breese and Powell once as their nerves showed in the field.
Mohamed finished with three for 42 from 10 overs, while Ramnarine also had three wickets to his name from 10 overs.
Trinidad and Tobago’s innings was not very dissimilar to Jamaica’s; for by the time they had reached 47, four wickets were already down including that of maestro Brian Lara.
Pacers Jerome Taylor and Daren Powell combined to take out numbers two to five, with two wickets each.
Taylor snapped up the prized scalp of Lara -- bowled with a sharp delivery which swung across the left-handed batsman, caught him playing late, and clipped the off bail.
Then Ganga, who opened the batting, restored the Trinidad and Tobago innings with Aneil Kanhai who made 39 from 57 balls with three fours.
The two put on 80 for the fifth wicket before Kanhai was removed by Breese to allow for another partnership to be built.
This time Ganga and Shazam Babwah, Zone A’s only centurion, put on 60 to take the score to 187 for six.
Babwah then fell for 45 just when the game had looked sealed for Trinidad and Tobago.
At 199, Breese came back and when Ganga tried to loft him straight and hard he plucked the ball - one-handed - out of the air in miraculous fashion to send the large crowd on hand abuzz.
Mohamed was then caught, brilliantly by Parchment, running in from cover, off Gayle in the 47th over, to leave Trinidad on 203 for eight. Then in the next over, a maiden bowled by Ricardo Powell, Reyad Emrit was plumb lbw playing on the backfoot.
The score was 204 for nine with seven to win from two overs and one wicket in hand.
In the 49th over bowled by Gayle, Ramnarine swept a four to get his team to within three runs of victory but after he blocked the third ball of the over, the fourth one uprooted his off stump and the Jamaican players leapt around in delight celebrating a victory which on so many occasions seemed beyond them.
Gayle finished as the lead wicket-taker with three for 37 from four overs, while Breese (2-42), Daren Powell (2-37) and Taylor (2-41) took the others.
Both teams advance to the semifinals with Trinidad and Tobago taking on Barbados, and Jamaica facing Guyana.
JAMAICA innings
C.Gayle lbw b Jan 15
B.Parchment b Emrit 6
W.Hinds c Mohamed b Bravo 22
M.Samuels c Modeste b Mohamed 13
R.Powell c wkp. Jackson b Mohamed 6
D.Bernard c Babwah b Ramnarine 34
*R.Samuels c Emrit b Ramnarine 7
+C.Baugh c Bravo b Mohamed 34
G.Breese c Modeste b Ranarine 21
D.Powell not out 22
J.Taylor not out 3
Extras: (b-4, lb-8, w-6, nb-9) 27
Total: (for 9 wickets - 50 overs) 210
Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-54, 3-63, 4-76, 5-76, 6-96, 7-146, 8-175, 9-201.