ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – Jamaica captain Tamar Lambert says his side never doubted they would win the 2010 WICB regional first class championship even though they faced a must-win scenario in the final round last weekend.
In a potentially tricky fixture against Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica pulled off a stunning innings and 72-run victory well inside three days to shoot to the top of the table.
“As I said to the players [following] the game we lost in Trinidad to Barbados, we know we’re a good team and a good team always comes back from a loss or from a draw,” Lambert told CMC Sports.
“We were a bit tired in that game we played against Barbados in Trinidad [in the sixth round]. I said to them that we didn’t turn up against Barbados so to make sure we turned up against Trinidad and Tobago.”
Jamaica conceded their first defeat of the season in the penultimate round of matches when Barbados beat them by 10 wickets in three days.
It left the title-holders entering the final round in second spot in the standings, nine points behind leaders Barbados.
Needing full points from their last game, they never faltered, piling up 379 all out in their first innings and then bundling T&T out cheaply for 144 and 163.
“I thought that the two and a half days that we played against Trinidad and Tobago, the intensity we played with was also good,” Lambert noted.
“I thought the partnership between Danza Hyatt and Brenton Parchment [of 200 for the first wicket] was also excellent and it really set up the game from there.”
Jamaica accomplished the feat without some of their leading players as Wavell Hinds, Brendan Nash, Nikita Miller and David Bernard Jr were all missing because of West Indies duty.
Lambert was quick to praise the contribution of these seasoned players though they missed the championship-winning game.
“It was a good team effort. I also have to mention Wavell Hinds and David Bernard Jr and Nikita Miller who played a couple of games before and really put us in a good position,” he pointed out.
“It means a lot. No team has every won three straight [titles] and I think this team really put in the hard work during practice sessions.”
Coach Junior Bennett said Jamaica entered the game knowing what was required and felt confident against a T&T side who had failed to beat them in recent years.
“Definitely our destiny was in our own hands. We just wanted to go out there and play consistent cricket over the four days. I think our openers gave us a good start and we capitalised on it,” he said.
“We decided we had to go out there and play positive. We were very confident against the Trinidad team because from 2007 they haven’t beaten us in a first class game so we banked on that to go out there and play some positive cricket.”
