A fine all-round display by John Campbell took the Jamaica Scorpions to a six-wicket victory over the T&T Red Force in their third round PCL four-day clash at the Queen's Park Oval yesterday. The former West Indies U-19 player surprised all by grabbing a career best 7/71 to skittle out the Red Force for 175 in their second innings, to set his team a victory target of 156. To make sure there were no let ups, the left hander opening the batting came good with an unbeaten 83 to end a remarkable match.
SCORES:
T&T Red Force 271 and 175 versus Jamaica Scorpions 291 and 156/4. Not known for his bowling, Campbell surprised all with his off-spinners as he kept a tight line just outside the off-stump to the many left handers on the Red Force team and allowed them to make the mistakes.
Set 156 for victory, Campbell and opening partner Paul Palmer killed off the early nerves to post 41 for the opening wicket. Red Force skipper Yannick Ottley employed spin very early in the piece, with the track playing slow and allowing for turn but his spinners could not get the early breakthrough needed to worry the visitors. Palmer left for 17 but did his job in supporting Campbell.
Barbadian Kirk Edwards then made sure there was no collapse as he grafted to 20 as the score moved along to 86 before he was run out. Despite losing Andre McCarthy and Tamar Lambert, Campbell took command of the situation and stayed to guide his team to victory. He batted for 165 minutes and faced 150 balls, striking seven fours in the process.
Earlier, Red Force resuming on 87/4 needed skipper Yannick Ottley to play a major role in a bid for a competitive score. However, after taking the score past the 100-run mark, he lost overnight partner Yannic Carriah for 19. Carriah was bowled by Nikita Miller and at that point,from then it was the John Campbell show. With four wickets to his credit on day three, Campbell made Ottley his fifth, as he was caught by Kirk Edwards for 24.
Soon the score slipped to 133 for eight and it took a rearguard stand of 38 from wicketkeeper Steven Katwaroo 29 and Daniel St. Clair to take the score past the 150-run mark. With the win, the Jamaicans moved into second place with 34 points, still 19 points shy of leaders 19 points Guyana who has won all three matches.
Red Force with the loss is now in joint third place with the Barbados Pride. T&T coach Gus Logie said his team missed the experience of skipper Rayad Emrit, who is in Bangladesh playing in the BPL. "There were just certain moments that we did not seize the initiative and it cost us. The guys missed the experience of Emrit, who has gotten them to play well under him.
"Having said that, I thought the team played well for certain parts of the game. We have quality in the team but we did not get the partnerships we needed. The pitch also changed characteristics a lot as the match went on and even on the final day we expected to get some assistance for our bowlers but it did not happen. We have some time before the next match and we are going to play a two-day match on the weekend, to try and get accustomed with this pitch."
Red Force next plays Guyana on December 4 at the Queen's Park Oval.
SCOREBOARD
Jamaica vs T&T
T&T 1st inns 271
Jamaica 1st inns 291
T&T 2nd inns
(overnight 87/4)
K Ottley c Jacobs b Campbell 31
J Solozano c Palmer b Campbell 19
K Mayers c McCarthy b Campbell 3
N Deonarine st Walton b Campbell 14
Y Carriah b Miller 19
Y Ottley c Edwards b Campbell 24
S Katwaroo st Walton b Campbell 29
I Khan c Mindley b Campbell 1
M Richards c Walton b Miller 4
D St. Clair lbw Miller 26
K Kantasingh not out 3
Extras: 2b, 1lb, 1nb, 1w 5
Total: all out 175
Fall of wkts: 49, 49, 56, 74, 104, 116, 119, 133, 171,
175.
Bowling: M Mindley 3-0-8-1, J Dawes 1-0-14-0, D
Bernard 2-0-6-0, N Miller 32-6-64-3, J Campbell
30.5-8-73-7, D Jacob 1-0-7-0.
Jamaica 2nd inns
J Campbell not out 83
P Palmer c Y Ottley b Kantasingh 17
K Edwards run out 20
A McCarthy st Katwaroo b Kantasingh 17
T Lambert c Richards b Kantasingh 13
C Walton not out 1
Extras: 1b, 4lb 5
Total: for 4 wkts 156
Fall of wkts: 41, 86, 125, 145.
Bowling: M Richards 2-0-5-0, N Deonarine 11-1-37-
0, K Kantasingh 16.3-4-51-3, I Khan 17-1-54-0, Y
Carriah 2-1-4-0.
Result: Jamaica won by 6 wkts.
Man of the match: John Campbell.
SCORES
JAGUARS 337 (Vishaul Singh 121, Leon Johnson 74,
Assad Fudadin 42, Raymon Reifer 32, Shimron Hetmyer
24) and 43 for one (Leon Johnson 20 not out)
PRIDE 104 (Gudakesh Motie 3-19, Veerasammy Permaul
3-41, Steven Jacobs 2-18) and 272 (Jonathan Carter 89,
Shamarh Brooks 53, Roston Chase 50, Kyle Corbin 24;
Gudakesh Motie 6-79, Steven Jacobs 2-105)
STANDINGS
FRANCHISES Pts M W L T I A DP MR BAT BOWL
1. Guyana Jaguars 53 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 9
2. Jamaica Scorpions 34 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 6
3. Barbados Pride 28 3 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 4 9
3. T&T Red Force 28 3 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 5 8
5. W/wards Volcanoes 21 3 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 7
6. L/wards Hurricanes 7 3 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 7