ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC):
THE JAMAICA Scorpions suffered defeat in their second West Indies Championship game against the Leeward Islands Hurricanes at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua yesterday.
The Hurricanes’ five-wicket victory coincided with Barbados Pide’s crushing innings-and-54-run victory over the West Indies Academy and the Guyana Harpy Eagles’ eight-wicket win over the Combined Campuses and Colleges.
At the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Jewel Andrew scored an unbeaten 62 from 81 balls to help the home side breeze to their target of 156 for the loss of five wickets to claim their second victory of the tournament.
The Scorpions gave themselves an outside chance of staging an unlikely victory when fast bowler Marquino Mindley snared the early wickets of openers Mikyle Louis and Kadeem Henry and Gordon Bryan bowled Karima Gore to leave the Hurricanes 63 for three, after resuming the day on 44 for one.
However, Andrew and Keacy Carty added 59 runs for the fourth wicket to get their team out of trouble.
When Carty was dismissed for 34 and Jahmar Hamilton followed in quick succession, Andrew and Hayden Walsh Jr took the Hurricanes over the line without any further alarm.
At Kensington Oval, Barbados Pride recorded their first win of this year’s West Indies Championship, strolling to an innings and 54-run win over West Indies Academy.
The result was never in doubt after the WI Academy resumed the day on 211 for six, requiring another 131 runs to make the Pride bat again.
Carlon Bowen-Tuckett scored an unbeaten 103 from 158 balls, Joshua Bishop scored 28, and Johann Layne made 27, but their innings only served to delay the inevitable.
Leg spinner Jomel Warrican picked up three of the four wickets to fall on the day to end with figures of 6-104, and pacer Ramon Simmonds supported with 4-43 for the Pride.
At the Guyana National Stadium: The Guyana Harpy Eagles completed a come-from-behind victory against the Combined Campuses and Colleges by eight wickets.
The defending champions, who were behind the eight ball for much of the contest, produced a sterling bowling effort to rout the CCC before half-centuries by skipper Tevin Imlach and Matthew Nandu secured an easy run chase.
Resuming the day on 32 for three in their second innings, an overall lead of 64 runs, the CCC were comfortably placed at 104 for four before losing their last six wickets for just 28 runs.
Veteran spinner Veerasammy Permaul snared four wickets while Ronaldo Alimohamed and Shamar Joseph grabbed two wickets apiece to be the main destructors.
Facing a straightforward target of 165 runs, the Harpy Eagles made light work of the run chase, with Imlach scoring 80, while Nandu finished unbeaten on 69.