- Junior DowieJamaica's Ricardo Powell pulls for a six during his innings of 85 at Sabina Park yesterday.
Tony Becca, Senior Sport Editor
JAMAICA IMPROVED their chances of winning their Busta series match against Barbados at Sabina Park with a determined if not exciting batting performance yesterday.
At stumps on day two of the four-day contest, the scoreboard read: Barbados 179, Jamaica 276 for four, and with the home team boasting a lead of 97 with six wickets in hand, with Gareth Breese and Mario Ventura on 44 and 23 respectively, with captain Robert Samuels to return, and with another two days to go, the odds, despite a pitch that looks like remaining good for batting to the end, are on Jamaica to tick off their second victory of the tournament.
On Friday's opening day, Jamaica dominated Barbados mainly because of the fiery pace and skill of Darrell Powell who boasted figures of five wickets for 28 runs. Yesterday they did so primarily because of Ricardo Powell who thrilled the local fans with a lovely innings of 85.
After a top score of 38 from five matches in 2000 and a top score of five from two last year, Powell enjoyed his best day for Jamaica since 1999 when, in his third and fourth matches for his country, in Jamaica's final matches of the season, he blasted the Bajan attack for a scintillating 80 and then a memorable 114 not out at Kensington Oval.
On those occasions, Powell, batting at number five, joined the action at three for three and at 25 for three.
Batting at number four yesterday, Powell entered the fray at 89 for two after Jamaica had lost openers Leon Garrick for 53 and David Bernard Jnr. for 28 at the same score, and although he was not as awesome as he was in 1999 at Kensington, although he took a little time settling in before opening up, he was brilliant.
In a long-awaited performance during which he paraded his skills for the first time on his home ground, Powell struck two sixes and 11 fours in a glorious display of timing and power before, immediately after tea, he shouldered arms and was bowled at 203 for four by offspinner Ryan Austin with a delivery that spun back out of the bowler's boot marks on the offside.
Before that bit of poor judgement, however, he played some really fine shots.
One of his fours, a front-foot drive off Austin, was a stroke of authority - the left-foot slipping forward, the bat coming down from a straight back lift, and after the sweet sound of willow hitting leather, the ball racing away through the covers.
His first six, the one off Austin that sent him sailing past 50, was so well timed, so powerfully struck that after clearing the Press Box at the northern end, the ball continued climbing until it disappeared.
It was not found. It certainly was not returned.
Although he was nowhere as dominant as Powell, Samuels also contributed to Jamaica's fine day.
Joining the action at 99 for three after Barbados, led by left-arm spinner Suleiman Benn and left-arm medium-pacer Ian Bradshaw, had picked up three wickets for 37 runs in the first 91 minutes and 24 overs, Samuels, batting like a man who believed he had a job to do and surviving some testing moments, shared a fourth-wicket partnership of 102 off 224 deliveries with Powell before he retired ill at tea with the total on 201 for three.
Barbados are looking down the barrel, but in what, despite Ricardo Powell's display, was a lovely contest between bat and ball, they gave it their best shot yesterday - particularly Benn and Bradshaw.
Benn, who bowled the second over of the day from the south and bowled 22 consecutive overs before he was rested for 17 minutes 50 minutes after lunch, picked up two wickets, and Bradshaw, who started the attack from the north and went unchanged for 10 overs, picked up one as Jamaica, resuming on 62 without loss, lost three wickets behind each other and struggled for the supremacy.
Garrick, attempting to play through the onside, was beaten through the air by Benn, failed to get to the pitch of the ball, and lobbed a catch to mid-off at 89 for one; Bernard, playing defensively forward after two glorious drives through extra-cover off Benn, edged Bradshaw to the wicketkeeper at 89 for two; and Keith Hibbert, leaning forward tentatively, was leg before wicket to Benn at 99 for three.
After that, however, it was all Jamaica.
First it was the contrast of the aggressive Ricardo Powell and the defensive Samuels, and after Powell's exit, it was a solid Ventura, who reeled off a classic drive through extra-cover off Bradshaw, and although he was lucky to escape at 12 when Courtney Browne failed to stump off Austin, a confident Breese who gave another glimpse of his potential as a batsman with a crisp drive off his legs to the square-leg boundary off Bradshaw and a spanking front-foot drive through the covers off pacer Tino Best.
