Tony Becca/ColumnistJamaica's performance of winning the double - the Carib Beer League Cup and the Carib Beer Challenge Trophy - is still the talk of cricket fans around the country and deservedly so.
After starting as rousing favourites and failing to even get out of the first round of the regional limited-overs tournament a few months earlier, Jamaica not only won the four-day and five-day, double, but they also did it in style.
Starting with a brilliant run of five victories in a row Jamaica, with seven victories out of 10 matches, finished with a total of 95 points to win the Cup by a distance of 37 points ahead of the Leeward Islands. And when the runners-up, according to the Board, challenged the winners, Jamaica, after giving their fans some anxious moments on the fourth day, nailed the Leeward Islands by eight wickets to win the trophy.
Usually such a performance is the result of a really good team effort. This one was no exception, and congrats to the likes of batsmen Tamar Lambert - acting captain during the first five matches, Donovan Pagon, David Bernard Jnr., and Carlton Baugh Jnr.
everybody chipped in
Congrats also to Daren Powell, Jerome Taylor, Dwight Wash-ington, and Odean Brown, who, as bowlers and with the help of other players like Brenton Parchment, Danza Hyatt, Odean Brown and Bevan Brown who chipped in from time to time, played some wonderful innings and took some valuable wickets in the first half of the tournament.
So close were most of those first five matches that but for some of those runs and some of those wickets, plus a few brilliant catches, Jamaica may not have won a few of them. In fact, despite the final margin of victory, but for some of those runs and some of those wickets Jamaica may not have won the Cup.
Later on when Jamaica started to stumble, Wavell Hinds, Marlon Samuels and Christopher Gayle, plus Xavier Marshall before he was suspended, paraded their class. They steadied Jamaica, they led the charge in Jamaica's blazing finish, and hats off to them also.
In lifting our glasses in praise of the team, however, there should be a special toast to one player - to left-arm spinner Nikita Miller.
In a season to remember, Pagon finished with 658 runs, one century and an average of 43.86; Lambert with 489, a top score of 79 and an average of 30.56; Bernard with 563, one century, and an average of 37.53; Baugh with 589, two centuries and an average of 42.07; Hinds with 357, one century, and an average of 44.62; Gayle with 389 two centuries - both in one match, and an average of 97.25; and Samuels with 428, one century, and an average of 71.33.
good bowling
With Powell pocketing 31 wickets with a best of four for 44 at an average of 22.74, Taylor 26 with a best of five for 23 at an average of 16.61, Washington 19 with a best of five for 20 with an average of 16.84, and Odean Brown with 18 and a best of five for 70 with an average of 23.77, the bowlers were just as good.
Unlike each and every one of those batsmen and bowlers, however, this was Miller's first first-class season.
He was picked specifically to lock up one end and to rest the fast bowlers, and the former St. Elizabeth Technical representative, the player who never represented the national youth team, did that and more, much more.
In rising to the occasion and bowling probably better than he has ever done for Melbourne, Miller bowled 355.4 overs - 133.2 more than the nearest bowler (Powell).
He bowled 84 maiden overs - 35 more than the nearest bowler (Powell), he took 39 wickets - eight more than the next Jamaican (Powell) and five more than any other bowler in the competition.
best return
Although, like Powell, he never enjoyed the satisfaction of a five-wicket haul, he had a best return of four for 27 and finished with an average of 19.56.
Miller, who took seven catches - one less than Bernard and 10 less than wicketkeeper Baugh, also scored some runs at the tail-end of the innings.
Lest we forget, apart from a top score of 48, Miller turned up with an invaluable 26 when, with Jamaica reeling at 26 for seven against Barbados in match number three, he and Powell, 56, rescued them in a fairy-tale performance.
