Veerasammy Permaul’s 12-wicket match haul went to waste for Guyana as Barbados pulled off an improbable defense of a fourth-innings target of 69 to win by two runs at Providence Stadium in the third round of four-day matches in the Professional Cricket League.
Barbados entered the final day’s play at 214 for 7 in their second dig, a 54-run lead after Guyana enforced the follow-on with a first innings lead of 160. Permaul already had 10 for the match and took two of the final three wickets on day four as Barbados only lasted another 5.5 overs to be bowled out for 228.
The left-arm spinner finished with 4 for 75 in the second innings following a remarkable 8 for 26 in the first innings, opening the bowling on both occasions, to produce a career-best match haul for the second game in a row. His 12 for 101 replaces the 11 for 76 he claimed in Guyana’s 92-run win over Windward Islands in the second round of the competition.
However, Dwayne Smith and Ryan Hinds sent Guyana into a rapid panic by taking two wickets each inside of the first six overs to reduce the hosts to 10 for 4. Opener Rajindra Chandrika made 30 to top-score in the chase, but the next best figure was Christopher Barnwell’s 12 lower down the order. Guyana was at 50 for 5 in the 21st over with just 19 needed to win when Chandrika was dismissed by Jonathan Carter.
Barnwell fell to Carter seven runs later before Smith wiped out the tail to finish with 5 for 17 and Man-of-the-Match honours. Guyana had made 261 after being sent in to bat on day one and remained in control of the match up until the very end when Smith’s heroics ended Guyana’s perfect record. Bowling straight paid off very handsomely as a whopping 18 lbw decisions were handed out over the course of the match, seven of them claimed by Permaul.
Windward Islands completed a comfortable nine-wicket win over Leeward Islands behind a Man of the Match performance from offspinner Liam Sebastien, who claimed his first career ten-wicket match haul in the win. Leewards won the toss and elected to bat first in Grenada but were bowled out on the first day for 101 after Sebastien wrecked the Leewards order with 5 for 39.
Devon Smith cemented a first innings advantage for Windwards by making 145 at the top of the order, an innings which helped secure his call-up to the West Indies Test squad in South Africa in place of the injured Chris Gayle. Windwards eventually declared on 308 for 5 after 108 overs.
Leewards turned in a much more convincing reply as 104 from Orlando Peters helped take them to 334. They were eventually bowled out in the last over of day three to set Windwards a target of 136 as Sebastien once again took five in the second innings. Tyrone Theophile’s 62 not out clinched the simple chase for Windwards to give them their first win of the competition while also serving to keep Leewards winless.
Jamaica recovered from a disastrous start in Port of Spain to record an impressive 37-run win over Trinidad & Tobago. After winning the toss and electing to bat first on day one, Jamaica lost its first four wickets with the score on 6 but were rescued by a 145-run fifth-wicket partnership between captain Tamar Lambert and David Bernard, who made 87 and 65 respectively in Jamaica’s first innings total of 173. They were the only two to cross double figures as five batsmen were dismissed without scoring. Legspinner Imran Khan claimed 6 for 52 for T & T.
Left-arm seamer Sheldon Cottrell thwarted any hopes the hosts had of securing a first-innings lead by taking 5 for 42 as T & T were bowled out for 131 in reply. Jamaica then made 196 in their second innings as opener Shacaya Thomas top-scored with 46 to set T & T a target of 239. Spinner Nikita Miller also contributed a valuable 40 late in the second innings for Jamaica and then backed it up with 7 for 63 to be named Man of the Match as T & T were bowled out for 201.
