Vin­ode Mam­chan

West In­dies bats­man Shiv­nar­ine Chan­der­paul scored a bat­tling half cen­tu­ry but was un­able to take Guyana to vic­to­ry over Ja­maica in their fi­nal pre­lim­i­nary round Nagi­co Su­per50 clash at the Queen's Park Oval on Sat­ur­day night.

Set a com­pet­i­tive 244 for vic­to­ry af­ter Nkrumah Bon­ner slammed 122 not out for Ja­maica, the Guyanese were well on the way un­til the de­pend­able left han­der fell for 65. De­spite lit­tle cameos along the way for the rest of the in­nings, Guyana fell 10 runs short of vic­to­ry and fin­ish­es sec­ond in Group A be­hind the Ja­maicans who com­plet­ed their pre­lim­i­nary round cam­paign with three wins.

Guyana had the match in their grasp when they were cruis­ing on 96-2, fol­low­ing an open­ing part­ner­ship of 88 runs be­tween Trevon Grif­fith (37) and Chan­der­paul (65).

But the slide be­gan fol­low­ing Chan­der­paul's de­par­ture and some ag­gres­sive bowl­ing from Rus­sell and Cot­trell didn't help Guyana's bat­ting.

As­sad Fu­dadin (21) was threat­en­ing to turn things in favour of the Guyanese but his at­tempt at a big hit at Cot­trell re­sult­ed in a top edge and a com­fort­able catch to Miller at mid wick­et. There­after, on­ly An­tho­ny Bram­ble (14) and Veerasam­my Per­maul (17 not out) got in­to dou­ble fig­ures.

Guyana reached 233 from 49.5 overs with­Rus­sell fin­ished with 3-51 and Cot­trell 3-62

Ear­li­er, Bon­ner scored a well con­trolled cen­tu­ry to lead a great Ja­maican fight back.

Tot­ter­ing at 170 for sev­en, the right han­der forged a hur­ri­cane 70-run part­ner­ship with Niki­ta Miller to take his team to 243 for sev­en off their 50 overs.

Win­ning the toss and bat­ting, the Ja­maicans found the ear­ly go­ing tough and was re­duced to 45 for three in the midst of great bowl­ing from pac­er Rons­ford Beat­en. The lanky Guyanese bowled an im­pec­ca­ble line and length to trou­ble the bats­men, on a pitch that was a bit two paced.

Bon­ner weath­ered the storm and slow­ly start­ed to re­build the in­nings. He scored his half cen­tu­ry off 117 balls and found good com­pa­ny in the form of An­dre Mc­Carthy 27. When Mc­Carthy fell the Ja­maicans lost three oth­er quick wick­ets to be re­duced to 170 for sev­en. It was at this point that Bon­ner changed gears, as the white ball start­ed to fly all over the park.

The last 10 overs of the in­nings pro­duced 104 runs as he and Miller ran ri­ot.

Bon­ner brought up his cen­tu­ry off 148 balls and end­ed on 122 not out. His fi­nal tal­ly read 157 balls, eight fours and five six­es. Miller's 20 not out came off 13 balls with two fours.

SCORE­BOARD

Ja­maica vs Guyana

Ja­maica inns

Ho­race Miller c A Bram­ble b R Beat­on 06

John Camp­bell c A Bram­ble b C Barn­well 10

Nkrumah Bon­ner not out 122

Tamar Lam­bert c A Bram­ble b A Fu­dadin 07

An­dre Mc­Carthy c L John­son b V Per­maul 27

Carl­ton Baugh Jr+ c C Barn­well b V Per­maul 08

David Bernard Jr* lbw b R Beat­on 08

An­dre Rus­sell c T Grif­fith b D Bishoo 14

Niki­ta Miller not out 20

Ex­tras 3lb, 18w 21

To­tal for 7 wk­ts (50ovs) 243

Fall of wk­ts: 14, 25, 45, 97, 134, 152, 170.

Bowl­ing: C Barn­well 10-0-57-1, R Beat­on 8-2-56-2, A Fu­dadin 6-1-17-1, D Bishoo 10-0-37-1, V Per­maul 10-0-45-2, R Cran­don 6-0-28-0.

Guyana inns

Trevon Grif­fith c Mc­Carthy b Rus­sell 37

S Chan­der­paul c Camp­bell b Cot­trell 65

Robin Bac­chus c Baugh b Rus­sell 06

Leon John­son lbw b Lam­bert 16

Christo­pher Barn­well* b Camp­bell 11

As­sad Fu­dadin c Miller b Cot­trell 21

Roys­ton Cran­don run out (Bernard) 13

An­tho­ny Bram­ble+ b Cot­trell 14

Veerasam­my Per­maul not out 17

De­van­dra Bishoo b Rus­sell 06

Rons­ford Beat­on run out (Camp­bell) 09

Ex­tras: (lb 1, w 15, nb 2) 18

To­tal (10 wk­ts; 49.5 overs) 233

Fall of wick­ets: 1-88, 2-96, 3-124, 4-145, 5-152, 6-178, 7-192, 8-201, 9-216, 10-233

Bowl­ing: Jerome Tay­lor 8-0-27-0 (1w), Shel­don Cot­trell 10-1-62-3 (1nb, 8w), David Bernard 5-0-29-0 (1nb, 1w), Niki­ta Miller 6-1-26-0, Tamar Lam­bert 10-1-27-1, An­dre Rus­sell 9.5-1-51-3 (4w), John Camp­bell 1-0-10-1 (1w)

Re­sult: Ja­maica won by 10 runs

Man of the match: Nkrumah Bon­ner (Ja­maica)