Runs, runs and more runs are usu­al­ly the or­der of the day in T20 crick­et, bring­ing fans to the edge of their seats.

How­ev­er, it was wick­ets that did the trick yes­ter­day, as 15 tum­bled for just 146 runs, as Bar­ba­dos got a five-wick­et vic­to­ry over Ja­maica in the Caribbean T20 se­ries at the Queen's Park Oval last night.

In over­cast con­di­tions and on a pitch that of­fered some as­sis­tance to the bowlers, Ja­maica crashed to 72 all out with Car­los Brath­waite tak­ing 4/23.

Ja­maica then came out fight­ing and re­duced the Bar­ba­di­ans to 40 for five, but Kyle May­ers and Shane Dowrich, us­ing con­trast­ing mea­sures, added an un­bro­ken 34 runs for the sixth wick­et to give their coun­try the win.

May­ers (18 not out) threw cau­tion to the wind, while Dowrich un­der­lined his grow­ing rep­u­ta­tion as a lev­el-head­ed, ma­ture crick­eter with 16 not out.

With the four points, Bar­ba­dos now sits atop the stand­ings on eight af­ter their open­ing win against the Lee­wards.

Ear­li­er, Ja­maica en­dured a spell where they lost eight wick­ets in the space of 13 runs, af­ter an open­ing stand of 38 runs. Medi­um pac­er Car­los Brath­waite was the man who en­gi­neered the col­lapse tak­ing four wick­ets, while the wily left-arm spin­ner Sulie­man Benn was his ac­com­plice, tak­ing 2/14. Al­so join­ing in the fun was an­oth­er left-arm spin­ner Ryan Hinds who took 3/12 off four overs.

The Ja­maicans sur­pris­ing­ly chose to bat first in over­cast con­di­tions and there was a lot of move­ment for the Bar­ba­di­an bowlers. The in­nings nev­er gained mo­men­tum and quick­ly end­ed in a tail­spin.

Tino Best start­ed the hor­rors with some in­ci­sive fast bowl­ing that left se­ri­ous doubts in the bats­men's minds. Brath­waite and skip­per Dwayne Smith then put the ball on the spot and al­lowed the con­di­tions to do the rest.There were many plays and miss­es and the edges came in­to play.

Smith him­self was ex­cel­lent in the field, tak­ing four catch­es. How­ev­er, he al­so played a big part with the ball and al­though not tak­ing a wick­et con­ced­ed on­ly four runs from three overs.

Scores: Ja­maica 72 all out (17.3) vs Bar­ba­dos 74/5 (11.2).

Ja­maica vs Bar­ba­dos

Ja­maica Inns

N Bon­ner st Dowrich b Benn 21

J Camp­bell c Brooks b Brath­waite 13

T Lam­bert lbw Brath­waite 7

D Hy­att c J Brath­waite b Benn 2

D Bernard c Brooks b Hinds 1

A Thomas c Smith b Brath­waite 0

A Rus­sell c Smith b Brath­waite 1

J Mer­chant c Smith b Hinds 0

K San­tok­ie c Dowrich b Hinds 13

N Miller c Smith b Best 6

O Brown not out 0

Ex­tras 3lb, 5w 8

To­tal all out 72 (17.3ovs) 72

Fall of wk­ts: 38, 40, 42, 49, 50, 50, 51, 51, 72,

Bowl­ing: T Best 2.3-0-16-1, C Brath­waite 4-1-23-4, S Benn 4-0-14-2, D Smith 3-2-4-0, R Hinds 4-1-12-3.

Bar­ba­dos inns

D Smith run out 2

J Brath­waite b San­tok­ie 23

R Hinds lbw Mer­chant 6

J Carter lbw San­tok­ie 0

S Brooks b Miller 1

S Dowrich not out 16

K May­ers not out 17

Ex­tras b4, lb2, w2 8

To­tal 5 wk­ts (11.2ovs) 73

Fall of wk­ts: 18, 30, 36, 36, 40.

Bowl­ing: K San­tok­ie 3-1-14-2, D Bernard 1-0-14-0, J Mer­chant 3-0-14-1, N Miller 2-0-15-1, O Brown 1.2-0-5-0, A Rus­sell 1-0-5-0.

Re­sult: Bar­ba­dos won by 5 wk­ts

Bar­ba­dos 4 pts, Ja­maica 0

Man-of-match: Car­los Brath­waite