Tony Becca, Contributing Editor
( L - R ) HINDS AND CHANDERPAUL
BACK IN November when the regional four-day Carib Beer cricket series got under way, Jamaica, the double defending champions with eleven West Indies players on call, were one of the highly fancied teams.
Right now, however, Jamaica are fighting for survival - so much so that going into their fifth and final match of the preliminary round against Guyana at Chedwin Park today, they are already out of the running for the Cup and in a desperate attempt, not to win one of the places in the semi-finals of the Challenge Shield but just simply to stay in contention for one of those places.
After a promising start in which they led the Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands on first innings at home, Jamaica lost to Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados away from home, they are now in fourth position on 12 points, and with 12 points for a win, with Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago on 24 points each from three matches, with both teams defeating them, they cannot win the Cup - not even, regardless of what happens in the remaining matches, if they rise to the occasion and defeat Guyana.
SEMI-FINALS
Although Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago are sure to finish ahead of them, Jamaica, with the Leeward Islands on 13 from four, Guyana on 12 from three, and with the Windward Islands on 10 from three, have a chance of finishing in the top four and making it to the semi-finals of the Shield.
The question, however, is this: can Jamaica, routed for 193 and 89 by Trinidad and Tobago, dismissed by Barbados for 129 and 319, and with Marlon Samuels heading their list with 34.75, with not even one batsman in the first 20 in the averages, lead or much more defeat a team which, with Shivnarine Chanderpaul averaging 93.00, Travis Dowling 91.33, and Narsingh Deonarine 89.66, boast three batsmen in the top four, and with Ramnaresh Sarwan averaging 51.25 and Krishna Arjune 50.20, two others in the top 15?
On top of that, while Jamaica's batting has been so poor that only one batsman - Tamar Lambert - has so far totalled over 200 runs, that no one has yet scored a century, and that Jamaica have passed 300 runs only once in eight innings, Guyana, with Dowlin scoring 274, Deonarine 269, Arjune 251 and Sarwan 205, have four batsmen who have each scored in excess of 200.
MARSHALL, PARCHMENT, FINDLEY DROPPED
In their bid to change their fortunes, however, Jamaica have dropped Xavier Marshall, Brenton Parchment and Shawn Findlay - their number one, number two and number three batsmen who all failed to score in the first innings against Barbados. They have brought in Chris Gayle, Donovan Pagon and all-rounder David Bernard Jnr., and they are hoping that a line-up of Gayle and Pagon - who is recovering from an injury and has not played a match since the second Test against South Africa last April, Samuels, Lambert, Wavell Hinds and Bernard, plus Carlton Baugh and even Gareth Breese, will rise to the occasion. This combination, they are hoping, will be too good for the Guyanese attack of pacers Reon King and Esuan Cranston, medium-pacer Dowlin, right-arm legspinner Mahendra Nagamootoo and left-arm spinner Neil McGarrell, and that, for the first time this season, it will take the pressure off the bowlers.
If they play up to their full potential and as Guyana's captain Chanderpaul fear they may do, it could be an interesting contest.
"Your guys have not been batting well," said Chanderpaul on Wednesday after a net session at Melbourne Oval, "but you never know, they may come good against us."
In other matches, Leeward Islands will host leaders Barbados, while the Windward Islands face Trinidad and Tobago.
