Jamaica held their nerve and grabbed victory after number eleven, Odean Browne smashed the penultimate delivery of the innings for four runs in a dramatic one-wicket semi-final triumph over Sagicor High Performance Centre (HPC) at the Providence Stadium last evening. The result means that the five-time regional limited overs champions will lock horns with ten-time tournament winners Trinidad and Tobago in the 2011 Regional Super50 cricket final.
In a highly competitive, low scoring encounter, the boys from the “Land of Wood and Water” almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory before Browne smashed the penultimate delivery of the innings over the boundary to usher in wild scenes of celebration as the Jamaican team rushed onto the field.
In breezy mid-afternoon conditions, HPC captain, the Barbadian Shamarh Brooks won the toss and elected to bat first on what was now becoming a wearing Providence wicket given the amount of matches played on it so far in the competition.
The HPC team remained unchanged, while Jamaica replaced injured top-order batsman Danza Hyatt with Jermaine Blackwood
HPC opener Kyle Corbin got his team’s innings rolling in audacious fashion, crashing Krishmar Santokie’s first ball of the afternoon to the cover boundary. However, the next period of play became the Santokie show as he scuttled the HPC top-order with some controlled swing-bowling.
Santokie began early with a double strike in the third over of the innings, firstly having Guyanese opener Rajendra Chandrika (2) leg-before to a sharp in-swinger, then three balls later, HPC leading run-scorer of the competition going into the semi-final – Nkruma Bonner (1) – sliced a drive to Miller at point.
The Santokie/Miller combination was at it again when Corbin also gave Miller a catch at the same position as HPC slumped to 23/3 in the seventh over.
An innings reviving 49-run fourth wicket stand between Devon Thomas 33 (69 balls, 3×4) and captain Brooks 20 (42 balls 1×4) brought some normalcy to proceedings but Miller entered with the ball to curtail the HPC.
Coming on to bowl his left-arm spin – which in partnership with leg-spinner Odean Browne built on the good work started by Santokie – the spin duo combined to spin through the middle-order, leaving the HPC innings tottering on 84/7 in over number 27.
With only the tail-enders left, Chris Gayle’s side looked to wrap up the Sagicor innings under the 100 mark.
However the arrival of Veerasammy Permaul, who for the second consecutive game for HPC played a valuable late-order innings, helped propel his side to a score with some degree of respectability.
Joining forces with Keron Cottoy, the duo added an invaluable 62-run eight-wicket partnership in 15 overs before Cottoy 35 (44 balls, 3×4, 1×6) was caught at slip by Marshall in Gayle’s first over of the tournament as he looked to run one down to third man, to leave the score on 146/8 off 42.3 overs.
HPC then crawled to a below par 176/9, with Permaul unbeaten on 39 (50 balls 1×4, 1×6) while Santokie spell of 12-0-41-3 took his wicket-tally as the leading quick-bowler in the tournament to 12 wickets, averaging 15.41 per victim.
The Sagicor team now needed their bowling, which is its core strength, to step up and defend the mediocre score set by their batsmen.
From the moment Gayle was dismissed, caught by Thomas at second slip off Brandon Bess for 6 with the score on 18 in the fifth over, the HPC combined brilliantly as a bowling unit, taking wickets at regular intervals throughout Jamaica’s innings, leaving them precariously on 164/8 in the 48th over.
But man of the match Santokie who starred with ball earlier, kept his cool better than most of his top-order, and, in partnership with tail ender Browne, took their side over the line in a nail biting encounter.
