Scorpions harbour outside chance of victory despite Pride dominance
JAMAICA Scorpions endured more batting heartache on Friday as Barbados Pride took firm control of the third-round regional four-day match at Sabina Park in Kingston.
The hosts suffered a late afternoon batting collapse — as the Pride’s debutant medium pacer Shaquille Cumberbatch impressed with 4-22 — to end the third day on 220-8 in their second innings, for a lead of only 100 runs.
Derval Green, on six, and Gordon Bryan, who is yet to score, are the not out batsmen for the Scorpions.
Scores: Scorpions 269 (78.4 ovs) & 220-8 (63 ovs); Pride 389 (120 ovs)
The Scorpions all-rounder Abhijai Mansingh, who made a battling half-century before he became one of the late casualties, said they have hopes of possibly adding another 100 to set a 200-run target on the final day.
He said his leg spin and the off spin of teammate Peat Salmon could prove pivotal on a wearing batting pitch.
“Realistically, we are hoping to get 170 to 200 and then myself and Peat Salmon would have to put our hands up to spin our team to victory on that fourth-day pitch,” Mansingh, 26, told journalists at stumps.
“We’re still [100 runs] ahead, and if we get two big partnerships tomorrow then we definitely have a chance of winning this game.”
He said the Scorpions, who trailed by 120 runs in the first innings and have been on the back foot for nearly all three days, lost vital momentum after being 200-5 at one stage in their second innings.
“If we had taken it to [close of play] with five wickets in hand, that would be a commanding position, I think,” he said.
“It was a fighting innings [but], unfortunately, I didn’t carry through to end of the day’s play because I think we were fighting our way back into the match. I definitely think if me and Morris batted to the end of the day, then on a fourth-day pitch we’re definitely in the game,”
Mansingh added.
The Pride Assistant Coach Ryan Hinds noted that Kraigg Brathwaite’s typically patient century and Kevin Wickham’s half-century on Thursday combined with Cumberbatch’s four-wicket haul to put them in the driver’s seat.
“I think we did well to get a 120-odd-run lead on a pretty good surface. We had a brilliant innings from Kraigg Brathwaite and young Kevin Wickham played really well. Then we bowled well — Shaquille Cumberbatch was superb today; when things weren’t happening he came through and got quick wickets,” he told the Jamaica Observer.
Barbados Pride resumed from their overnight score of 315-6 with Brathwaite on 129 and former West Indies Test wicketkeeper Shane Dowrich on 19. The pair stretched their seventh-wicket partnership to 66 runs before Dowrich (44) fell to swing bowler Green.
Brathwaite’s epic vigil ended soon after when Salmon, who took three wickets in the innings, had him edging to Blackwood at slip. The 31-yearold opener hit 15 boundaries off a whopping 314 deliveries.
The lower order resisted gamely before the Pride were eventually dismissed for 389, giving them a significant first-innings lead. Medium pacer Green was the Scorpions best bowler with 4-78.
The Scorpions had the worst-possible start when veteran Chadwick Walton (four) was given out edging a delivery from pacer Jair Mcallister through to Dowrich.
Walton’s opening partner Carlos Brown (35) and West Indies Test left-hander Kirk Mckenzie (39) withstood the Barbados Pride pressure to add 61 runs for the second wicket.
However, Cumberbatch, 29, who bowled with accuracy and guile, dismissed both before also accounting for Jamaica Scorpions Captain Jermaine Blackwood (0) who continues to endure a miserable start to the campaign.
The hard-hitting Leroy Lugg (43) rode his luck during a 72-run stand for the fifth wicket with Mansingh, and at 156-4 the Scorpions appeared well placed to mount a comeback.
But Lugg drove a Cumberbatch delivery into the clutches of Jonathan Drakes at short mid-on and the Pride got stuck in thereafter to tighten the reins.
Mansingh constructed a 103-ball 54 to help keep the Scorpions afloat before he suffered a lapse in concentration.
Mansingh left alone a ball from left-arm finger spinner Jomel Warrican — but did not use his pads to properly cover his stumps — and was bowled as the ball spun sharply from the rough, outside leg stump.
Left-hander Romaine Morris, who struck an entertaining 97 not out in the first innings, and Peat Salmon went for 19 and eight, respectively, just before the close as the Pride moved in for the kill.