Scorpions suffer shocking defeat
Ashocking batting collapse, inspired by Test left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican, sent Jamaica Scorpions to a stunning 41-run defeat inside three days, in their opening match of the Regional Four-Day Championship.
Set a paltry 107 for victory after bowling Barbados Pride out for 187 in their second innings at lunch, Scorpions were bundled out spectacularly for
65 off just 18 overs at 3W’s Oval, UWI Cave Hill campus on Saturday.
They were tottering on 54 for four at tea, before losing their last six wickets for 11 runs.
Warrican claimed four for 27 to end the match with 12 for 116, while Test fast bowler Miguel Cummins captured four for 19.
Opener John Campbell with 11 and Andre McCarthy, 14, were the only two batsmen to reach double figures.
Veteran Nikita Miller had earlier picked up six for 76 to finish with match figures of 10 for 129, while fellow left-arm spinner Dennis Bulli supported with three for 41, as the hosts lost their last seven wickets for 94 runs.
Resuming on 93 for three, Pride lost opener Shayne Moseley after the left-hander had added just two to his overnight 46. Hayden Walsh Jr struck a breezy 36 down the order, while Aaron Jones, yet to score at the start, chipped in with 31.
Moseley perished in the morning’s second over, caught at short leg off Miller, triggering a slide that saw three wickets tumble for 18 runs.
BRACE OF SIXES
Walsh, who struck four fours and a brace of sixes in a 57-ball knock, then propped up the innings in a 47-run, seventh-wicket stand with Jones, who faced 69 balls and counted two fours and a six.
Once Jones holed out to deep square off Bulli, Pride lost their last four wickets for 26 runs.
Beginning their run chase after lunch, Scorpions looked in control with Campbell hitting four fours in putting on 24 for the first wicket with Chadwick Walton (9).
Even when Campbell fell to Cummins off a catch by wicketkeeper Tevyn Walcott running around and Test batsman Jermaine Blackwood holed out to long-off off seamer Keon Harding for six, there was no sign of the collapse to come, as Scorpions reached 46 for two.
But Warrican introduced the panic when he had Walton caught at second slip and in his next over, got captain Paul Palmer (1) to drive a low full toss to his opposite number Shamarh Brooks at cover, on the stroke of tea.
The innings never recovered following the resumption as Warrican and Cummins scythed through the innings.