Tony Becca
JAMAICA Cannot longer win the Carib Beer Cup this year.
While with one match to go in the series before the challenge match they can still finish second in the Cup and win the four-day Carib Beer Challenge Trophy and although, with two matches to go in it, they can still reach the semi-finals and win the one-day KFC Cup. After their promising start, it is disappointing that the Cup is beyond their grasp.
It is said that bowling and fielding win matches and that is true. There is no question, however, that bad batting loses matches and although their bowling, but for Jermaine Lawson at times, lacks sting, although their fielding is up and down, that is the case with Jamaica - and especially so in the last match against Barbados, at Chedwin Park.
In one of the most atrocious batting displays in a long time, or rather in a few days, Jamaica were routed for 132 and 135 and lost by an innings and 31 runs to a team which scored only 298 runs.
While there is no question that pacers Corey Collymore and Pedro Collins bowled well, they certainly were not unplayable.
And, although some fans have tried to find excuses, not one of them can blame the pitch or the decision to bat first - not on a pitch on which Jamaica were 87 for one after lunch before losing nine wickets for 45 runs and not on a pitch on which, after Jamaica had fallen so cheaply, Barbados went to bat, scored almost 300 runs and then returned and dismissed Jamaica for 135 in 32.4 overs in just more than three hours.
The manner in which some of the batsmen got out was simply embarrassing and particularly so in the second innings when batting for a long time and nothing else was the important thing.
Jamaica, batting a second time and under pressure, scored almost the same number of runs in the second innings as they did it the first. They batted for almost half the number of overs they did in the first innings and all because of some careless, reckless strokeplay while batting as if their brains were scrambled.
It was pathetic to see the approach of Jamaica's batsmen on Monday afternoon - to see the flashing strokes attempted against the moving ball and to see Tamar Lambert getting under a short delivery and uppercutting it to Collymore on the third-man boundary.
It was just as bad on Tuesday morning to see David Bernard Jr., at 88 for six, driving ambitiously at Collymore and edging a catch to second slip, to see Nikita Miller, at 88 for seven, driving airily at Collins and surviving a chance to third slip and to see Odean Brown, at 103 for seven, swinging lustily at a delivery from left-arm pacer Collins and being bowled middle stump.
History of Barbadian batsmen
When one remembers the history of Barbadian batsmen against offspinners, and more so, from Marlon Tucker, through Nehemiah Perry to Gareth Breese, their history against Jamaican offspinners, it is still difficult to understand how offspinner Bevan Brown was not selected for this match, and especially so when one saw the Barbadian batsmen fighting for survival against Lambert's part-time offspin.
And just as how it would be interesting to know why fast bowler Andrew Richardson, who was not suffering from any injury, bowled only six overs for 21 runs, while Lawson was being driven, cut and hooked all over the place, while conceding 100 runs off 16.3 overs - including 24 runs in one over, just as how it would be interesting to know whether the selectors are finished with left-arm wrist spinner, André Dwyer, and although it would not have mattered as far as scoring runs were concerned, it would have been interesting to have seen Bevan Brown operating against these Barbadian batsmen - and on his home pitch at that.
The dismal performance of Jamaica's batsmen - a performance that mirrored that of the previous Thursday at Alpart when they were destroyed for 123 by Guyana in the one-day match after apparently cruising along at 39 without loss - suggests, however, that it may not have mattered.
