Tony Becca, Contributing Editor

Parchment

MANDEVILLE:

THE CARIB Beer Series cricket match between Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago comes to an end at Alpart today and, with a place in the final of the Challenge Trophy at stake, it promises to be an exciting finish.

When bad light stopped play yesterday on a day dominated by the superb batting of Brenton Parchment who scored his second century of the match while carrying his bat through the innings, the scoreboard read: Jamaica 254 and 301, Trinidad and Tobago 236 and 56 without loss.

With Jamaica needing 10 wickets to win, with Trinidad and Tobago needing 264 runs to win with one day to go, under normal circumstances, it should be a thriller. The circumstance, however, is not normal. Victory for Jamaica will catapult them into the final while even a draw will send Trinidad and Tobago through.

Safe bet

While Trinidad and Tobago could be very cautious or very careful depending on how they start the day, it is a safe bet that the home team, with an attack of pacers Jerome Taylor, Jermaine Lawson and Daren Powell, plus left-arm spinner Nikita Miller, and although he has not taken a wicket all season, even medium-pacer David Bernard Jr., will be gunning for victory from the first delivery today.

Although Lendl Simmons, 21, and Adrian Barath, 20, were looking good at stumps yesterday, it could be a long, hot day for Trinidad and Tobago's batsmen - not only for their two young guns, 16-year-old Barath and 19-year-old Kieron Pollard, but also for the likes of the more-experienced Simmons, Daren Ganga and Jason Mohammed.

As it was in the first innings, so was it in the second innings. Jamaica owed their relatively-imposing second innings total to Parchment - the 24-year-old right-hander who, in scoring a magnificent 168 not out, became not only the third Jamaican, the second in the regional tournament, to score twin centuries in a regional match, but the ninth batsman, the sixth in the regional tournament, to do so.

Way back in 1947, the left-handed Allan Rae scored 111 and 128 against Barbados at Sabina Park, and in 2005, on the same Alpart pitch, another left-hander, Chris Gayle, scored 131 and 150 against the Leeward Islands.

After he was ninth out in the first innings, Parchment became the second Jamaican and the sixth batsman to carry his bat through an innings in regional contest.

In 1966 at Queen's Park Oval, Easton McMorris scored 127 not out against Trinidad and Tobago in the inaugural year of the then Shell Shield.

Resuming on 19 with Jamaica on 26 without loss, Parchment batted for 335 minutes, faced 284 deliveries, stroked 13 fours and blasted eight sixes - including two off left-arm wrist spinner Dave Mohammed and five off off-spinner Amit Jaggernauth who picked up three wickets for 115 off 25 consecutive overs.

After signalling his intentions early in the proceedings when he went back and hit Ravi Rampaul high to the mid-wicket boundary and then went forward and stroked the pacer to the cover boundary, Parchment thrilled the gathering with some magnificent strokes - some timed with such perfection that they raced unaccompanied and unmolested to the boundary, some timed with such perfection and with such power that they sailed over the boundary and landed some distance away.

T&T cornered

When they began their hunt for victory, or their battle for survival, Trinidad and Tobago's Simmons and Barath were cornered by some hostile bowling from Taylor and Lawson, and with Simmons escaping when he edged Taylor wide of third slip, when he played and missed on a number of occasions, with Barath, attempting to duck a short, kicking delivery from Lawson and the ball flying off his helmet and down to the boundary, Jamaica were unfortunate not to have picked up a wicket or two before the close of the day's play.

With the shadows stretching across the field, however, Simmons eased his left-foot forward and stroked Taylor to the cover boundary. In the following over, Barath pushed his left-foot forward and drove Lawson twice through the covers - once to the cover boundary and once to the extra-cover boundary and at stumps they looked ready for the fight which, although they do not need it, they hope will end in victory.

Jamaica first innings 254

T&T first innings 236 Jamaica second innings

(Resumed at 26-1)

B. Parchment not out