Bowlers put Jaguars in command after Blackwood’s stand

CWI PCL 4-Day Championships…

Story and Photos by Brandon Corlette

A fantastic four-wicket haul by left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul, augmented by two wickets each from Christopher Barnwell and Nial Smith, resulted in Guyana Jaguars dismissing the Jamaica Scorpions for 187 all out in 79.5 overs on the opening day of their Cricket West Indies (CWI) Professional Cricket League (PCL) 4-Day championships’ match being played at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence.

Extravagant stroke-maker Jermaine Blackwood, in a more cautious approach in this innings, missed out on a century when he fell for a composed 80 in this fourth-round clash. At stumps, the Jaguars are 17-0 from eight overs.
On a day of glorious sunshine at the stadium, and with cricket being watched by less than 50 spectators, Jamaica Scorpions won the toss and elected to bat first. After 7.1 overs of cautious batting, when the score was on eight, the Scorpions lost their first wicket when Kevin Sinclair destroyed the stumps of Assad Fudadin for three.

Seven balls later, West Indies Test opener John Campbell was trapped at the wicket by Raymon Reifer for five, with the score moving to 8-2.
Blackwood and Paul Palmer, in steadying the ship, took the score to 47-2 at the lunch interval; but one run and four balls into the afternoon session, Smith broke a stump in two when he removed the left-handed Palmer for a scratchy 72-ball 15.
With the score having ticked over to 48-3, the busy Blackwood was joined by Nkrumah Bonner, and the duo settled Scorpions’ nerves with some watchful batting, in process of which the 28-year-old Blackwood reached his 37th first class half-century in 135 balls and 176 minutes.

Using a different approach, the classy right-handed Blackwood had, at that stage, slammed six fours in his attractive innings as Scorpions reached 117-3 at the tea interval.
Blackwood was on 61 and Bonner was unbeaten on 24 when a brief shower visited the Providence Stadium during the tea interval. And with the first delivery after tea, Bonner hit a crisp boundary to extra cover off Sinclair to get things underway.
Then the man with the golden arm, Christopher Barnwell, broke a threatening 74-run partnership by producing a ripper that peeled off the edge of the right-handed Bonner to be pocketed by wicket-keeper Anthony Bramble with the score at 122-4.
Bonner had made a 77-ball 29, which included five fours.
Battling on, Blackwood was joined by Denis Smith, and the duo quickly added 42 runs to the score. But when he looked set for a century, Blackwood was bowled by Permaul for 80, after facing 181 balls in his 181 minutes at the crease, during which he had stroked 10 fours.
With the Scorpions still at 164-5, Permaul sparked a collapse that resulted in the Scorpions losing their sixth wicket, Pete Salmon’s, brilliantly caught without scoring by Vishal Singh at gully; then Smith (19) played a loose cut shot at a Permaul delivery and edged one into Bramble’s gloves, as the score pushed on to 165-7 in 69.5 overs. Scorpions then lost their last six wickets for 23 runs.
Permaul ended with 4-34 in 21.5 overs that included eight maidens, while Barnwell had 2-16 and Smith had 2-50. Day two will commence today at 9:30h. Admission is free.