PCL 4-DAY: Motie, Paul put Jaguars ahead

Front-runners and three-time reigning champions Guyana Jaguars fortified their bid for victory against Barbados Pride at the Guyana National Stadium, following another destructive spell from Windies Under-19 World Cup-winning all-rounder Keemo Paul and gritty, lower-order batting, led by a career-best knock from the unheralded Gudakesh Motie.

Paul has so far taken 4-38 from 18.1 overs to follow up his first innings five-wicket haul and fellow all-rounder Sherfane Rutherford supported with 2-40 from 9.1 overs, as the Jaguars’ bowlers turned the screws on their rivals to fortify their bid for their fourth victory of the season.

The Pride suffered an early set back, when Windies ‘A’ Team fast bowler Keon Joseph removed left-handed opener Shayne Moseley in the fifth over, as the visitors reached 37 for one at tea. After the break, the Pride failed to ease concerns about their batting, as they slumped to 109-7.

Anthony Alleyne has so far led the way with 32 and their captain Shamarh Brooks, the Windies ‘A’ Team Test captain, made 22, but no other batsman reached 20.

The match still appeared to hang in the balance after two days, but Motie frustrated the Pride for close to three hours to finish with an unbeaten 72 and shared a number of vital partnerships that inched the Jaguars past 300 and to a narrow first-innings lead.

Jaguars, starting the day on 180-4, rallied behind Motie, whose knock included 10 fours and one six from 147 balls, before Nurse took 3-33 from 8.4 overs and left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican 3-91 from 29 overs to wrap up the innings. 

Hurricanes (207) & (137) lost to Red Force (360) by an innings and 16 runs in Basseterre, St. Kitts

A career-best spell from left-arm spinner Khary Pierre supported by leg-spinner Imran Khan swept Trinidad & Tobago Red Force to an innings and 16-run victory over Leeward Islands Hurricanes in the Digicel 4-Day Championship on Saturday.

The spin duo shared nine wickets to engineer a dramatic Hurricanes batting collapse that propelled the Red Force to their second victory of the season on the third day of their fifth-round match at Warner Park.

The 26-year-old Pierre, playing only his seventh first-class match, finished with 5-44 from 26.4 overs – his maiden five-wicket haul – after going wicket-less in the first innings, and the lanky Khan claimed 4-17 from 10 overs to follow up his three wickets in the first innings to put the skids on the Hurricanes.

Starting the day on 60-0 and faced with a first-innings deficit of 153, there was no sign of the collapse to follow, when Windies ‘A’ Team opener Montcin Hodge and former Kent batsman Chesney Hughes pushed on nicely.

Hodge struck four fours in the top score of 54 from 198 balls in 3-1/2 hours at the crease and former Kent batsman Chesney Hughes collected five fours and a six in his 96-ball knock 42.

They shared an opening stand of 86 for the Hurricanes – but the breakthrough came for the Red Force, when Hughes missed a wild pull at a delivery from off-spinner Bryan Charles and was bowled.

This opened the floodgates opened and the hosts lost their last nine wickets for 29 in the space of 19 overs with Jeremiah Louis scoring 17 to be the only other batsman that did not perish on the bridge between nought and 10.

Khan was named Player-of-the-Match for his seven wickets in the game and first innings knock of 84.

Volcanoes (200) & 169-6 vs Scorpions (352) in Kingston, Jamaica

Veteran left-arm spinner Nikita Miller followed up a record, ninth-wicket stand with century-maker Fabian Allen with another purposeful spell to put Jamaica Scorpions in the hunt for victory against Windward Islands Volcanoes at Sabina Park.

Miller grabbed 5-45 from 25 overs with his left-arm spin to leave the Volcanoes nursing a slender lead of just 17 when stumps were drawn.

It was the second five-wicket haul in the match and third straight for the Jamaica Scorpions captain, after he missed the first three matches, recuperating from a medical procedure he underwent just prior to the start of the season.

This brought a close to a memorable day for Miller, the most successful bowler in the history of the West Indies first-class championship, as he also claimed an unprecedented 450th wicket in his 83rd #D4Day game when he had Taryck Gabriel caught by wicketkeeper Steven Taylor, the former United States captain, for 30.

Miller earlier made 52 and ushered Allen to his landmark – a purposeful, undefeated 105 – his second hundred of the season – in a record ninth-wicket partnership, after the Scorpions, starting the day on 261 for eight, were bowled out in the post-lunch session

Allen, resuming from his overnight 57, reached his landmark just prior to the lunch interval and finished his innings with 11 fours from 205 balls in just under 5 ¼ hours of batting.

He shared 141 for the ninth-wicket with Miller – a Jamaica first-class record – beating the previous mark of 124 between Mario Ventura and Franklyn Rose against Leeward Islands Hurricanes two decades ago at Webster Park in The Valley, Anguilla.

Incredibly, Miller counted just one boundary in his 177-ball knock that occupied 3 ¼ hours of batting before Test off-spinner Shane Shillingford trapped him and Windies “A” Team fast bowler Reynard Leveridge lbw off the last balls of successive overs to bring the Scorpions innings to a close. 

Shillingford ended with 7-94 from 44 overs.

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