Tony Becca, Contributing Editor
Jamaica's skippers during the Carib Beer Series, Wavell Hinds (right) and Tamar Lambert, with the team's booty after the victory over the Leeward Islands at Alpart yesterday.
NAIN, St. Elizabeth:
JAMAICA ENDED their campaign in the 2005 regional Carib Beer Series in style at Alpart yesterday when they defeated the Leeward Islands by eight wickets to win the Carib Beer Challenge Trophy and in the process the coveted double.
Final score in the first five-day match in the history of the regional competition: Leeward Islands 180 and 442, Jamaica 372 and 252 for two with opener Christopher Gayle, in a magnificent performance, scoring 150 not out and Tamar Lambert, the acting captain for the first five matches of the season, reeling off some lovely offside drives and finishing on 24 not out.
Following on his 131 in the first innings, the 25-year-old Gayle became the second Jamaican to score two separate centuries in a regional match since Allan Rae stroked 111 and 128 versus Barbados at Sabina Park in 1947, and the first Jamaican, the fourth batsman behind Guyana's Roy Fredericks, Trinidad and Tobago's Joey Carew and the Leeward Islands' Stuart Williams, to do so in the regional competition since its inaugural season in 1966.
THE DOUBLE
Winners of the Carib Beer League Cup with an impressive 95 points from their 10 home and away league matches, yesterday's victory over the runners-up handed Jamaica the double for the first time since two titles became available in 2001.
In that year, Jamaica failed to win the then Busta Cup but won the Busta International Shield and in the following year, in 2002 under Robert Samuels, they won the Cup but failed to retain the Shield when they lost on first innings to Guyana.
Going into the day's play on 26 without loss with Gayle on nine, Hinds on 16, the victory target 225 runs away and the match, in the opinion of many fans, in the balance after the Leeward Islands' wonderful recovery on the fourth day, Jamaica started quietly against some testing bowling, particularly by pacer Adam Sanford, before thrilling the fans with some brilliant strokes as they dashed to victory.
In a wonderful demonstration of how to bat when things are tight, Gayle and captain Hinds started cautiously, denied, with a little luck, the Leeward Islands an early breakthrough, and then proceeded to post 164 off 46 overs for the first wicket before Hinds, after batting for 188 minutes, facing 136 deliveries, and stroking five boundaries, was leg before wicket for 48.
Dropped at 21 at 75 when he stroked a full toss back to offspinner Omari Banks, Hinds, 20 minutes after lunch, went inside to pacer Kerry Jeremy bowling round the wicket, attempted to stroke the ball through the onside, missed, and was leg before wicket.
The second wicket fell at 188 when Marlon Samuels, attempting to drive medium-pacer Wilden Cornwall through the offside for the second time in two deliveries, was bowled off the inside edge for 14.
By then, however, it was too late for the Leeward Islands - simply because by then Gayle had ticked off not only his second century of the match but also his seventh century for Jamaica, his 21st century in first-class cricket and was ready to preen himself.
In a lovely climax, Gayle, who scored 100 runs out of Jamaica's first 145, who batted for 207 minutes, faced 181 deliveries and stroked 15 fours, pulled Sanford over mid-wicket for six, and with five runs needed for victory, blasted a full toss from Banks over the long-off boundary.
Fittingly, Lambert, the captain when Jamaica started the run to the double with five straight victories, was there at the end - and as short as his innings was, 25 deliveries, he too was brilliant.
Three of his four boundaries were lovely front-foot strokes through the offside. The best of the four, however, was the last one - the one before Gayle slammed his two sixes to bring the proceedings to an end.
It was a back foot square-cut off Sanford that echoed around the ground like the crack of a whip.
