BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Jamaica crushed Combined Campuses and Colleges by eight wickets inside two days yesterday to clinch their fourth straight Regional First Class Championship.
Set a mere 10 to win, Jamaica reached 15 for two to complete an uncomplicated victory with two full days to spare in the final at the 3Ws Oval and confirm themselves as the undisputed kings of four-day cricket.
Some 18 wickets tumbled for just 256 runs on a day when neither side showed any real commitment with the bat.
Jamaica’s victory was set up by their spinners who combined to take eight wickets to send CCC tumbling for 122 in their second innings.
West Indies left-arm spinner Nikita Miller snared four for 33 and leg-spinner Odean Brown claimed four for 54, to engineer the collapse after they trailed by 113 runs on first innings.
Only captain Omar Phillips with 34 showed any real enterprise as CCC crashed from 56 without loss, losing their last nine wickets for 66 runs.
Earlier, Jamaica were dismissed for 225 at lunch after resuming the day on 106 for three.
Captain Tamar Lambert, unbeaten on four overnight, top-scored with 41 while off-spinner Ryan Austin took four for 81 and left-arm spinner Kavesh Kantasingh snatched four for 89.
Jamaica, however, would have been hoping for a bigger first innings total when they resumed the second day on Saturday, but were undermined by the spin twin of Austin and Kantasingh.
Lambert and nightwatchman Jason Dawes (6) posted 34 for the fourth wicket to deny CCC any early breakthrough before Dawes was trapped lbw, swinging across the line at Kantasingh at 140 for four.
The right-handed Lambert, who stroked three fours off 101 balls in just over two hours at the crease, became Kantasingh’s next victim when he edged a drive to Floyd Reifer at slip at 161 for five.
Wickets then fell steadily and only West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell, who blasted a four and two sixes in a cameo 26 from 31 balls, and veteran left-hander Wavell Hinds (23) showed any enterprise down the order.
Test left-hander Brendan Nash did not bat after suffering an injury in the field on Friday.
The match looked set to stretch well beyond two days when Phillips and Currency posted 56 for the first wicket in quick time.
Phillips, a tall left-hander, looked dangerous in stroking five fours from 51 balls but was the first to go when he was caught by Wavell Hinds in the deep.
Hinds then produced a moment of brilliance to account for CCC’s leading run-scorer Kyle Corbin without scoring, running around from long-on to long-off to take a superb diving catch at 59 for two.
Without a run added, Floyd Reifer (7) was bowled by his back sweeping at Miller, signalling the terminal decline of the CCC innings as the last seven wickets fell for 63 runs.
A target of 10 runs should have been cause for litter consternation but it prevailed anyway when Kantasingh had Danza Hyatt caught close in on the off-side without scoring with one run on the board , to claim his 44th wicket of the competition.
Hyatt’s opening partner Simon Jackson then fell to a catch at cover off Austin with Jamaica still two runs away from victory but Chadwick Walton formalised the result with a six over long-o
