Tony Becca, Contributing Editor
Jamaica opening batsman Brenton Parchment on the go. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
JAMAICA'S BATSMEN were fighting for survival against the Windward Islands bowlers when rain stopped play on the opening day of the Carib Beer Cup cricket match at Alpart yesterday.
When rain sent the players off the field 35 minutes before tea, Jamaica, with captain Tamar Lambert on three and Danza Hyatt on six, were 76 for three off 41 overs on a day when play got under way 15 minutes late due to excessive moisture in the pitch. The start of the post-lunch session was also delayed for 25 minutes due to rain.
Batting first on a slow pitch after winning the toss, Jamaica's batsmen were cornered by left-arm pacer Deighton Butler one for 20 off 13 overs; and right-arm leg-spinner Rawle Lewis two for 19 off 10 overs; and with topscorer Shaun Findlay surviving two chances, one at zero and one at 21, but for some good luck the home team may well have found themselves in serious trouble on the shortened day.
Twenty-five minutes into the day's play Jamaica lost their first wicket when Xavier Marshall played forward to Butler bowling over the wicket and edged
a catch to Darren Sammy at
second slip.
That was 11 for one in the seventh over and it could easily have been 11 for two when, next delivery, the left-handed Findlay attempted to force Butler through the onside and was dropped by Hyron Shallow at short-leg.
Findlay after edging Butler between second slip and third slip in the same over to get off the mark riding his luck and driving the pacer to the wide long-on boundary, hit offspinner Shane Shillingford high to the wide long-on boundary. With Brenton Parchment swinging Shillingford over mid-wicket for a six; with Findlay, at 46 for one, cutting at left-arm pacer Kenroy Peters and again surviving when Romel Currency dropped a difficult catch at first slip; and with Findlay driving the first delivery from Lewis to the long-off boundary, Jamaica went to lunch at a promising 59 for one off 24 overs.
DELAYED RESUMPTION
In 60 minutes and 17 overs after the delayed resumption, however, Jamaica, faced with some tight bowling by Lewis and Butler, scored only 17 runs and lost two wickets one of them unluckily so.
The first to go, 16 minutes into the session and without addition to the lunch score, was Findlay the batsman, pressured by the presence of a short-leg, a slip and a silly point, driving loosely at Lewis and going away bowled for 29 at 59 for two in the 29th over after batting for 96 minutes.
He faced 72 deliveries and hit
four boundaries.
The next to go, 37 minutes later and with only 10 runs added in 10 overs, was Parchment. After batting for 159 minutes, facing 125 deliveries and hitting two fours and one six. He drove at Lewis and walked away a disappointed batsman at 69 for three in the 39th over as the ball bounced off the boot of Currency at silly point, lobbed across the pitch, and Shallow at short-leg dived forward to take
the catch.
Just before his departure, Parchment drove Lewis sweetly to the extra-cover boundary, the only boundary stroke of the session,
as Jamaica's batsmen fought
for survival against the spin
of Lewis and the pace of Butler
and Sammy.
