Permaul stands tall, as Jaguars live to see another day

CWI PCL 4-Day Championships…

By Brandon Corlette

The penultimate day of the fourth-round clash in the Cricket West Indies (CWI) Professional Cricket League (PCL) match between Guyana Jaguars and Jamaica Scorpions can only be described as intriguing.

Jaguars ended the day on 155-9, requiring 27 runs for victory heading into the final day.
Veerasammy Permaul was again the Jaguars’ proverbial knight in shining armour, bagging 6-50 in the second innings — in which the Jaguars were set a total of 182 for victory — and standing tall at stumps on the third day, having surviving 60 balls in his unbeaten 20.
For Scorpions, debutant off-spinner Pete Salmon claimed 7-56 in a leg-before party in which six of the nine wickets were leg-before dismissals, and 16 wickets fell on an animated day.

Permaul bags 6, Bonner resists
Scorpions resumed the day on 50-3, with a lead of 47 runs. Guyanese-born Scorpions opener Assad Fudadin and fellow left-hander Paul Palmer began proceedings for the visitors. The duo added only 23 runs together before off-spinner Kevin Sinclair removed Fudadin for a second time in the match, trapped in front for a 63-ball 19 which included two fours.
At 79-5, Palmer departed when the probing Permaul destroyed his stumps. The left-handed Palmer, a centurion this season, could make only 15 runs from 52 balls. Two runs later, a clueless Denis Smith was leg-before to the same Permaul as Scorpions slipped further into trouble.

Solid right-hander Nkrumah Bonner found a reliable partner in Derval Green, and the duo added 46 runs before Green departed for 19 on the stroke of lunch, trapped in front by Raymon Reifer who had earlier had a string of close calls against him.
At the lunch interval, the Scorpions were 127-7 in 48.2 overs. Reifer returned with venom after lunch and removed Pete Salmon for a duck with the score on 131-8.
The ninth wicket partnership was a game-changing affair for the Scorpions, as Bonner found a reliable partner in Jamie Merchant, and the duo rubbed salt in the Jaguars wounds by adding 45 runs together. In the process, Bonner reached his 50, but Merchant departed for a fluent 26 from 29 balls with the score on 176-9.
Bonner eventually ran out of partners when Patrick Harty (00) gave Permaul his tenth wicket of the match, and was thus left stranded on 57 from 124 balls, which included five fours in a brilliant innings.

Permaul ended with 6-50 in 26 overs of which 8 were maidens, backing up his first innings’ haul of 4-34. Reifer had 2-19 and Sinclair had 2-56 in 23 overs.

The chase that never was
Time was never an issue for the Jaguars in their requirement of 182 runs for victory; but they lost Chandrapaul Hemraj 4.3 overs into the chase after he had struck two fours in his 20-ball 13, and the score was adjusted to 16-1.
Hemraj lost his wicket to off-spinner Pete Salmon, but Captain Leon Johnson and Tagenarine Chanderpaul piloted the hosts to tea with the score on 48-1.
Chanderpaul became Salmon’s second wicket when he was trapped in front for 12, and the score was adjusted to 49-2.
Wickets then fell at regular intervals, with Johnson becoming another leg-before victim of the innings, falling for 19 to Merchant before Vishal Singh departed for a duck at 51-4. It was a leg-before party for the Scorpions, whose accurate bowling gave nothing away.
Barnwell was the fifth batsman to proverbially bite the dust, reducing the Jaguars to 62-5. Having made just 12 runs, Barnwell was trapped by the off-spinner Salmon.
With half of the side in the hut, Anthony Bramble and Raymon Reifer added a vital 47 runs together for the sixth wicket – Bramble’s – who, in counter-attacking mode, played positively but departed the crease at 109-6. His tally of 36 runs came from 31 balls and was decorated with six fours, but he fell for the second time in the match to left-arm spinner Harty, who trapped him at the wicket.
Salmon then struck gold with the big wicket of Reifer, who was bowled for 13 after facing 44 balls and hitting a solitary boundary.
With Reifer having departed on 119-7 and Jaguars still requiring 63 runs for victory — although they still had three wickets in hand — the small gathering was in for a thrilling finish to the end of the day’s play.
Sinclair failed to offer significant resistance, and departed for 13 with the Jaguars on 130-8. Smith, another leg-before victim to Salmon, made another duck; but Keon Joseph, who bowled only one over in the second innings, partnered Permaul and the duo survived to stumps with Jaguars on 155-9, requiring another 27 runs for a win.
Permaul contributed a fighting, unbeaten 20 in 60 balls, while Joseph survived 16 balls for his five runs. The match, starting today from 9:30h, will be in for an early finish, as the Jaguars require only 27 runs, while the Scorpions, with their tails up, need only to take the final wicket.
Salmon has been the Scorpions’ star with 7-56 through his testing off-spin bowling.