BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Xavier Marshall stroked his second half-century of the Caribbean Twenty20 Championship to propel Jamaica to a nine-wicket victory over Canada yesterday.
Marshall smote four fours and four sixes in 52 from 43 balls, as Jamaica successfully chased 102 to claim victory with 42 balls remaining in the fifth preliminary match of the competition at Kensington Oval.
The result was formalised, when Umar Bhatti delivered a short ball to Dave Bernard Jr, which sailed over the batsman’s head, and was called a wide by standing umpire Peter Nero.
It was the second victory for Jamaica in the competition, following a similar result over Leeward Islands two days earlier.
The Jamaicans face Trinidad & Tobago in their final Group-A match on Wednesday, after the competition switches to the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain, where the Canadians meet Leeward Islands on the same evening.
Marshall reached his 50 from 40 balls with a six off Bhatti over wide long-on, and put on 98 for the first wicket with Bernard before he was caught at extra cover off Trevin Bastiampillai in the 13th over.
Bernard with 36 not out from 33 balls, and following his three wickets for 13 runs from three overs, which wrecked the top-order of the Canadian batting, was a shoo-in for the Man-of-the-Match award. Bernard removed Hiral Patel for seven, fellow opener Geoff Barnett for eight, and Canada captain Rizwan Cheema for six, as the Canadians slipped to 27 for three. But the Jamaicans were stonewalled, when Tyson Gordon, one of their expats, hit the top score of 25, and Zubin Surkari made 15 in a stand of 43 for the fourth wicket.
Jamaica captain Tamar Lambert made the breakthrough, when he trapped Gordon lbw, and Canada lost four wickets for eight runs in the space of 17 balls, leaving Bastiampillai and Hamza Tariq to carry them over the 100-run threshold.
Lambert ended with two for seven from three overs, and Odean Brown took two for 21 off four overs.
