PORT OF SPAIN, CMC:TEENAGED PACER Jerome Taylor captured eight wickets and propelled Jamaica to a five-wicket win over Trinidad and Tobago in their sixth round Carib Beer 2003 Cricket Series match at the Queen's Park Oval yesterday.
Trinidad and Tobago tumbled to 234 all out in their second innings, and Jamaica -- set 121 runs to win -- survived a spirited three-wicket haul from pacer Marlon Black and laboured to victory at 123 for five.
Man of the match Taylor logged impressive figures of eight for 59 off 20.5 overs with four maidens as Jamaica swept maximum 12 points to leap from fifth to second in the standings with 39 points, 21 behind new champions Barbados with one round remaining.
Trinidad and Tobago slumped to back-to-back defeats and are now fifth in the standings with 31 points, trailing Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana (36), and the Leeward Islands (34).
From an overnight 195 for six, Trinidad and Tobago, now in serious danger of missing the Carib Beer International Shield semi-finals, struggled while surviving for an hour and 20 minutes.
They added a mere 39 runs for the loss of their last four wickets, three of them to the zippy 18-year-old Taylor.
Overnight batsmen Lendl Simmons and Dave Mohammed posted a resistant 42-run seventh-wicket alliance that ended when Mohammed (3) missed a drive off Taylor and was bowled at 208 for seven.
It became 219 for eight when the umpires consulted to confirm that wicket-keeper Keith Hibbert's effort to grasp an edge low off Ravi Rampaul (9) against pacer Darren Powell, was taken.
WRAPPED UP THE TAIL
Taylor then wrapped up the tail with leg before wicket decisions, trapping Black (0) and then Theodore Modeste, playing no shot to a delivery that cut back, for one.
Powell, with one for 35 off 10 overs, and David Bernard, one for 30 off 12 overs, supported Taylor and the rout was completed at 11.20 a.m. local time, with Simmons unbeaten on 38.
Jamaica, unseated as Cup champions when Barbados raced to an unbeatable 60 points with a three-day win over the Leeward Islands on Sunday, scored briskly but lost opener Brenton Parchment (2) and number three batsman Bernard (15) to Black while scoring 31 in the six overs the faced before the lunch break.
Parchment was caught by Andy Jackson at first slip and Bernard fell to a low catch by wicket-keeper Simmons.
Jamaica suffered three more setbacks in the post-lunch session before Gareth Breese ended the game at 2.27 p.m. by whipping left-arm spinner Mohammed through mid-wicket for four.
Ravi Rampaul (2-37) bowled Leon Garrick (19) off the inside edge as the diminutive right-hander tried to drive through extra-cover, and the 18-year-old pacer also trapped Maurice Kepple LBW for 16 as Jamaica dipped to 79 for four.
Daren Ganga twice dropped Kepple at slip off Mohammed, and Robert Samuels (16) was caught behind wildly chasing a wide ball while the visitors clumsily achieved their second outright win of the season.
Hibbert steered Jamaica to their win with 40 not out, including four fours, and a six off Mohammed over the wide long-on boundary and Breese was on seven at the end.
Black captured three for 32 off 10 overs to lead the bowling for T&T, who were beaten in three days by Barbados in the fifth round.
In the seventh round starting Friday, Jamaica will be at home to India "A", and Trinidad and Tobago travel to the US Virgin Islands to face the Leeward Islands.
