In less than half-an-hour, Guyana Jaguars lost their final wicket falling seven runs short on the final day of their fourth round clash of the West Indies regional Championships against the Jamaica Scorpions at the Providence National Stadium yesterday.
It was the first win for the Scorpions in this year’s competition and the five-time defending champions and host, Jaguars, when play resumed yesterday morning, required 27 runs for victory after closing the previous day on 155 for 9, in reply to Scorpions who posted 187 and 184 in their two innings.
The defending champions were cautious in their approach yesterday, looking to chip away at the target, knowing any mistake, would be their last and the match would end.
A lot depended on Veerasammy Permaul, who resumed on 20, and who continued his mindset of sheltering number 11 batsman, Keon Joseph against the spinners.
In the first two overs, Scorpions gifted Jaguars five byes, welcomed by an uproar from the handful of spectators and Jaguars team members that nervously flocked the balcony to motivate the two batsmen.
The Scorpions spinners toiled effortlessly with every ball resulting in a pin-drop silence throughout the Stadium on a cool Sunday morning.
The nervousness grew even further as Joseph dissected the first slip and wicketkeeper to pick up his first boundary off of Jamie Merchant and bring the target down to 16 runs.
However, a persistency with spin from the visitors saw
Permaul refusing to take singles in the first half of the over but was content with giving Joseph the strike for the final delivery.
When seam was first introduced, Joseph, who ended on 11 not out from 39 balls after spending 78 minutes in the middle, flicked the first ball down to fine leg and pushed for a single. But Derval Green had the better of Permaul and trapped him leg before wicket with his fourth delivery to end the 30-year-old’s 99-minute vigil for 28 that came from 103 balls.
After the match, assistant coach of the Jaguars, Shivnarine Chanderpaul was critical of the wicket that troubled both sides and posited that they didn’t bat well but acknowledged it was difficult to bat on the surface.
“We didn’t bat well, it was probably difficult to bat on the wicket, the wicket wasn’t that easy, you look at the scores no team reached 200 so it’s definitely difficult to bat on a wicket like that 
but having said that both teams had the opportunity to bat on the wicket and Jamaica played better on it,” he said.
He added that it is always a hard pill to swallow to come so close but credited the team, especially the last pair for showing their fighting spirit.
“It was obviously great from the last two guys there, it shows we have fight, it doesn’t matter if we are down to the last guy we are going to fight all the way.”
He added,”It shows we are a good team and good teams always play hard,” Chanderpaul said.
Meanwhile, player of the match and debutant, Peat Salmon, who ended with a match haul of eight for 110 said his team stuck to the game plan.
“We had to be on the money right away and we just kept to what we discussed in the dressing room.”
Salmon noted that it was a good feeling to have so many wickets on debut but said that it wasn’t the best of start to his first-class career since he wanted to contribute more with the bat.
