Tony Becca - FROM THE BOUNDARY THE PRELIMINARY round of the Red Stripe Bowl cricket tournament is over and, as expected, the four teams in the semi-finals are Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago from Zone A, Barbados and Guyana from Zone B.
They are the four top teams in the region and starting with Jamaica versus Guyana and Barbados against Trinidad and Tobago in the semi-finals, the Discovery Bay showdown for the title should be an exciting affair.
In Zone B, defending champions Barbados, who were upset by Antigua, and Guyana, who lost to Barbados, finished level on 13 points after three victories and one defeat each and because Barbados defeated Guyana, they finished on top of the group. It was a different story in Zone A, however.
EARLY FAVOURITES JA
Early favourites to win the title, Jamaica won Zone A with maximum 16 points from four matches five ahead of Trinidad and Tobago who won two, shared the points from one, and lost one, and with the Zone B matches played in Antigua, without the benefit of seeing Barbados and Guyana in action, based on the final standings in Zone A, Jamaica should still be favourites to go all the way.
The final commanding five-point margin by Jamaica could be misleading, however, for although Trinidad and Tobago, who defeated the Leeward Islands on the Duckworth/ Lewis system, could have lost that match had the rain stayed away, even though instead of getting a share of the points when the match was abandoned due to rain, they could also have lost to the Windward Islands, they came close, very close, to winning the zone.
They went to within a whisker of defeating Jamaica on Sunday.
With Trinidad and Tobago needing three runs to win the match with one wicket in hand, Christopher Gayle bowled Dinanath Ramnarine who must still be kicking himself for swinging wildly for trying to win the match with one shot when there were eight more deliveries to come.
LOSERS
After looking all over the losers when Trinidad and Tobago, chasing 211 to win, were sailing along at 187 for five in the 43rd over with Daren Ganga and Shazam Babwah going well, Jamaica, and captain Robert Samuels who used his bowlers well at the end, deserve credit for hanging in there and pulling off an amazing victory.
What happened up to then, however, should be cause for concern ... particularly if they remember what happened to them in the final against Barbados last year when, after a good start, their bowling failed to finish off Barbados, and when their batting, but for a good innings by Wavell Hinds, failed to fire.
On Sunday, against the best team in the zone, Jamaica, with their vaunted batting line-up, were struggling at 76 for five and 96 for six before David Bernard Jnr., Carlton Baugh Jnr., Gareth Breese and Daren Powell rescued them; and after pacers Daren Powell and Jerome Taylor had left Trinidad and Tobago on 48 for four, they almost blew it.
TO THE RESCUE
By coming to the rescue, Bernard, Baugh and Breese did show that Jamaica batting goes deep in the order, by chipping in at the end, Breese, Gayle and Ricardo Powell did show that Jamaica's bowling has more than two strings to its bow, and no question about it, that is good.
Such is the power of Jamaica's batting that they could still not only win the tournament but also win it in style.
Sunday was too close for comfort, however, and although the finish may have made some of the Jamaicans who were counting their chickens long ago, who were confident of a Jamaica victory from the start of the tournament, even more confident, the performance by their top batsmen, but for the last few overs, the performance by their slow bowlers, must have left some of them in doubt and praying for the best especially those who were at Kaiser last year.
Jamaica may still be and should still be favourites to go all the way. After Sunday, however, they are not as hot as they were before.
