Bajans go under

KINGSTON - Barbados and Jamaica combined to produce a sustained, electrifying display of hitting in their top-of-of-the-table Zone "A" Red Stripe Bowl zone clash at Sabina Park here on Sunday.

Barbados, however, had to settle for second best, their demise caused principally by their tardiness and raggedness in the field.

They gallantly took up the challenge in pursuit of a target of 308, but they were physically and psychologically set back even before they faced a ball.

Having spent half-hour more that the allocated three-and-half hours to deliver the full 50 overs, Barbados were docked three overs that surely proved crucial in the final analysis.

It was more than a sterling effort that they were able to get up to as many as 287 for seven, thanks mainly to the aggression of in-form Floyd Reifer and Philo Wallace, whose support came from Kurt Wilkinson, Ryan Hinds, Vasbert Drakes and Sulieman Benn, who was sent in at No. 5.

But it was always going to be a tall order for last year's runners-up, who lost by 20 runs. It relegated them to second place in the group and gives them a semifinal meeting against defending champions Guyana.

"If we had got those three overs, we would have won the game for sure," Barbados captain Courtney Browne said. "There were a lot of interruptions, especially from Jamaica. There were so many things. The ball had to be changed.

"I can't really bash my players for a slow over-rate. We worked very hard to get in the overs, but with all the interruptions, we just couldn't get them in."

Browne, however, made no excuses for their sloppiness in the field and the 17 wides and 16 no-balls they gifted to the Jamaicans.

"Our extras and our cricket beat us. Our fielding wasn't good."

Asked to score at 6.55 an over after they were penalised because of their tardy over-rate, Barbados needed a rollicking start from Wallace and he duly delivered by thumping 44 off 38 balls before he was prised out by Ricardo Powell's excellent running catch on the deep mid-wicket boundary from off-spinner Gareth Breese's second ball.

Barbados scored at almost seven while Wallace was in and after Wilkinson's supporting innings of 39 ended, Ryan Hinds, with another solid 46 and the explosive Reifer kept the match alive with a third wicket stand of 88 in 19 overs.

In marching to his third successive half-century, Reifer smashed three sixes, two of them straight down the ground and to the back of the big George Headley Stand. His 72 off 88 balls was another example of his dominance at this level and he kept Barbados in the match until he was stumped from a flat delivery from Powell when 68 were still needed from less than five overs.

Faced with quality opposition for the first time in the tournament, Barbados' bowlers ran into batsmen who were never afraid to attack and the early fireworks set the tone for Jamaica's impregnable total.

Even the usually mean left-arm spinner Benn was roughly treated and Barbados had to use as many as eight bowlers to contain Chris Gayle, Leon Garrick, Wavell Hinds, Marlon Samuels and Ricardo Powell.

Half-centuries from Garrick (74 off 127 balls) and Hinds (58 off 64 balls) were the leading contributions; but the most enterprising batting was provided by Gayle (49 off 44 balls), Samuels (40 off 34 balls) and Powell (29 not out off 17 balls) after Jamaica elected to bat first.

With the batsmen in such a rampaging mood, the fielders were under immense pressure and were constantly drawn into errors. The ground fielding was ragged at times; there were far too many over-throws, the returns to the 'keeper were often inaccurate and there was a dropped catch by one of the safest men in the field.

It was put down by Reifer at slip when he parried Gayle's offering from a difficult delivery from Corey Collymore to his left in a manner that would have pleased Oliver Kahn, Fabian Barthez or any of the world's other top goalkeepers.

It wasn't a chance that proved costly. Gayle added only five more runs, but by then he had given Jamaica the perfect start with adventurous strokes that would have made the Bajans tremble in their boots. He repeatedly charged the fast bowlers with success and an one occasion he deposited Pedro Collins over long-off and into the Air Jamaica Stand.

Collins had to be promptly removed from the attack after his first three overs went for 27 and Collymore and Vasbert Drakes came on only to temporarily halt the flow of runs.

The first ten overs between them yielded 31 runs and included the wicket of Gayle, who Collymore bowled in a spell in which he appeared to have developed a slight stomach problem.

After the opening stand of 80 in 14.3 overs, Collymore and Drakes were only able to stem the run-spree for a brief period when Garrick and Hinds were trying to establish themselves.

Garrick followed Gayle's example by using his feet to the fast men at times and Hinds grew in confidence as their partnership developed to 102 in 20.2 overs before it was ended by Bradshaw's stunning, jumping right-handed catch at mid-wicket that accounted for Garrick.

The mayhem, however, did not stop and Jamaica lashed 125 runs in the last 15 overs.