Junior Dowie/ Staff Photographer
Guyana's Carl Hooper punishing a loose delivery during his magnificent 149 not out on the third day of the Busta International Shield final at Sabina Park yesterday. Hooper slammed 12 fours and seven sixes.Tony Becca, Senior Sport Editor
JAMAICA'S dream of winning the Busta International Shield and putting it beside the Busta Cup was all but destroyed at Sabina Park yesterday when Guyana, thanks to some dazzling, superb batting by West Indies captain Carl Hooper, won first innings lead and went on to place themselves into an apparently impregnable position in the four-day showdown.
Cricket being what cricket is, however, and although there is only today's final day to come, it is possible that Jamaica could come back, win the match, and celebrate the double.
With the scoreboard reading Jamaica 277 and 103 for two, Guyana 354, and the home team leading by only 26 runs, however, the contest seems certain to end in a draw and that would be enough to hand last year's beaten finalists the Shield.
There is, however, some hope for Jamaica. The defending champions could score quickly today, declare their innings closed, and although it would take a miracle for that to happen, although they would then run the risk of losing the match, go for victory.
With Guyana resuming on 149 for four and still 129 runs short of the lead, the contest was nicely balanced at the start of the day's proceedings, and after winning seven matches in a row, partly because of some brilliant, some times amazing catches, Jamaica failed to win the lead because of two things - a continuation of the previous day's poor catching and Hooper's brilliance.
After dropping five catches on the second day, Jamaica missed a good opportunity to put the pressure on Guyana when, 20 minutes after the start, wicketkeeper Keith Hibbert dropped night watchman Azib Haniff off offspinner Gareth Breese at four at 156 for four.
Despite that, and a couple more dropped catches, Jamaica were still in it after Haniff was caught by Daren Powell off Breese at mid-on at 170 for five and when Ramnaresh Sarwan, pulling away to cut left-arm spinner Ryan Cunningham, was leg before wicket for 40 at 190 for six when the ball, insead of spinning away from the right-hander, skidded into his pad.
After that it was all Hooper.
With the competent Neil McGarrell reeling off some good drives - including a beauty through extra-cover off Daren Powell, the 35-year-old Hooper powered his team into the lead with a fantastic 149 not in 199 minutes off 156 deliveries.
In notching his 57th first-class century, his 12th in the regional contest, and his second against Jamaica, in a performance so dominating, so commanding and despite the array of elegant strokes, so brutal that it appeared more like a flogging than a spanking, Hooper, who started with a delicate sweep off Cunningham to the fine-leg boundary and one to the square-leg boundary, and a massive drive into the George Headley Stand off Breese, stroked and smashed seven sixes and 12 fours to all parts of the ground.
At lunch, with the score on 236 for six and the target 42 runs away, Hooper was on 46 with two sixes and three fours off 60 deliveries in 82 minutes.
That meant that after lunch, before Reon King was run-out to end the innings on the stroke of tea, Hooper scored 103 runs out of Guyana's 118 in 117 minutes off 96 deliveries while blasting five sixes and nine fours.
It was a treat, a royal treat to be exact, and bowlers like pacers Daren Powell and Jermaine Lawson, spinners Breese and Cunningham who looked so good before were caned mercilessly.
The first delivery after lunch, from Daren Powell, was driven through the covers, and from there on it was a scintillating exhibition as Hooper hooked, pulled, flicked and drove the pacers, chipped and drove the spinners all along the ground or way beyond the boundary.
After stepping past his century with a hook off Daren Powell, after effortlessly driving Cunningham over long-off, Hooper turned on Breese, and with the crowd shouting 'take it easy Hooper', the West Indies captain, probably in an effort to test the young man's mettle, probably feeling that he needed to send a message, smashed the offspinner for three huge sixes - one over mid-wicket and on top of the eastern stand, one over mid-wicket, and one over long-on and again into the Headley Stand.
Batting in their second innings, Jamaica, probably still dreaming, probably because the pacers were bowling, went for quick runs, and with Gayle, dropped at slip by Hooper off Colin Stuart at 36 at 51, blasting 54, they chipped to 88 in 98 minutes off 21.5 overs before right-arm legspinner Mahendra Nagamootoo and left-arm spinner McGarrell reduced Gayle and Garrick to blocking and plodding before cutting them down.
Gayle, dropped by Hooper at slip at 36 at 51 when he cut at Nagamootoo, cut again and edged to the wicketkeeper, and Garrick, reaching forward and then failing to get his bat away fast enough when the ball popped on him, edged to the wicketkeeper.
Gayle, parading his power to the delight of the fans, was particularly severe on King who conceded 26 runs in his last two overs.
In successive overs from the pacer, the big left-hander drove to wide long-off, drove through mid-wicket, drove straight, and then through mid-on.
