Jamaica fight on ... Nash, Bernard Jr to the rescue

Jermaine Lannaman, Gleaner Writer

Sensible batting by Brendan Nash and penetrative bowling from David Bernard Jr towards the end resulted in Jamaica staying in the fight against the Windward Islands on day one of their Regional Four-Day Tournament clash at Sabina Park yesterday.

Nash, playing in his first competitive match since being dropped by the West Indies selectors after the first Test of India's tour of the Caribbean last season, made a top score of 49 not out in Jamaica's first-innings total of 180.

Bowling his usually accurate combinations of inswingers and outswingers, Bernard then claimed 2-9 to limit the Windwards to 49-3 when stumps were drawn at the scheduled cut-off time of 5 p.m.

With Chris Gayle in the line-up for the first time since leading Jamaica to the Regional Super50 title late last year, Jamaica entered the match eyeing a winning start, and after being asked to take first strike after losing the toss, they would have been hoping to put up a total big enough that would not make them bat again.

However, as fate would have it, that would not to be the case, as with the exception of Nash and to a lesser extent captain Tamar Lambert and Donovan Pagon, Jamaica's batsman failed to make use of what was a fairly good batting track.

The first major casualty was the explosive Gayle who, with the score on seven, got a peach of a delivery outside his stump, and was caught at third slip off the bowling of pacer Kenroy Peters.

This brought to the crease the returning Pagon, who was axed last season, and together with opener Simon Jackson they added 43 for the second wicket before Jackson was caught at backward square leg off left-arm spinner Garey Mathurin.

Jackson made 18, which was eight more than Pagon, who was the next to go when he was caught and bowled by Shane Shillingford with the score on 56.

Big partnership

This then brought together Nash and the more slender-looking Lambert, and together they went about trying to perform a repair job before and after lunch. However, with the score on 106 and the partnership worth 50, Lambert was induced into a delivery outside his off stump and was caught at slip for 26.

That partnership turned out to be the biggest one of the innings, as shortly after Lambert left, David Bernard Jr (11), Carlton Baugh Jr (2), Andre Russell (2), Nikita Miller (7), Odean Brown (1), and Andrew Richardson, 13, failed to trouble the scorers much.

Mathurin, who played a solitary Twenty20 International for the West Indies last year, ended with figures of 5-34, while there was a wicket apiece for Peters, Shillingford, Nelon Pascal, and captain Liam Sebastien.

The Windwards, sensing at least first-innings honours, then came out in a positive mood and were at one stage 31 without loss before Bernard Jr took over.

He first bowled an inswinger to the left-handed Devon Smith, who could only manage to edge to Jackson at second slip for 12, and then in his very next over got the ball to swing in to right-hander Andre Fletcher, with him yet to get off the mark and the visitors on 37-2.

Nikita Miller an over later then trapped opener Johnson Charles for 24 with the score on 39-3.

"It was a decent batting track, but as you saw we did not apply ourselves properly," said Nash.

"A total of 230 or so would have better represented the effort that was made. But having said that, we have made a start to our bowling, and come tomorrow the plan is to get as many wickets as possible, and if not try to limit their ability to score," he added.

Mathurin, in summing up the day, said he was looking forward to today's action.

"It's not the ideal start we would have liked chasing, but it is not a very bad start either," he said.

"I believe we have a good all-round team, and I am confident that come tomorrow we will be able to consolidate."

Play resumes today at 10 a.m.

Scoreboard

JAMAICA 1st Innings

Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-50, 3-56, 4-106, 5-125, 6-130, 7-150, 8-164, 9-165, 10-180.

Bowling: Pascal 12-2-27-1, Peters 14-4-25-1, Charles 1-0-12-0, Shillingford 17-3-46-1, Mathurin 20.4-6-34-5, Sebastien 10-3-33-1.

WINDWARDS 1st Innings

To bat:L Sebastien, D Polius, + James, G Mathurin, S Shillingford, N Pascal.

Fall of wickets: 1-31, 2-37, 3-39.

Bowling: Richardson 4-1-11-0, Russell 4-1-13-0, Miller 5-1-15-1, Bernard 4-0-9-2.