Jamaica clinch thrilling one-run scrap

Jamaica 143 for 7 (Hyatt 59, Marshall 31, Cush 3-8) beat Guyana 142 for 8 (Royston 35) by one run
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Jamaica claimed a thrilling one-run win over defending champions Guyana, who failed to score the 12 runs required off the final over bowled by Marlon Samuels, to move into the final of the Stanford 20/20. Jamaica will now face Trinidad and Tobago in Sunday's title clash.

Guyana had a pathetic start to their chase of 143. They slumped to 42 for 5 by the 11th over against some tight bowling by the pace duo of Jerome Taylor and Darren Powell and the spin of Marlon Samuels. Travis Dowlin hit a boundary on the first delivery of Guyana's innnings but he made a quick return to the pavilion after miscuing a shot off Taylor. Samuels was introduced into the attack as early as the fifth over and he found success first-ball, dismissing Sewnarine Chattergoon. Powell then struck twice in the next over; he cleaned up Shivnarine Chanderpaul (10) with a yorker before having Lennox Cush caught behind. Guyana were staring down the barrel when captain Ramnaresh Sarwan holed out to Shawn Findlay at long-off while stepping out against Samuels.

However, Guyana's lower order adapted themselves to the task better than the top half. Royston Crandon took the lead by dispatching three sixes and a boundary in his 14-ball 35 as he attempted to bring down the required run-rate. By the time he was dismissed, Guyana needed 28 off 21 with three wickets in hand. Mahendra Nagamootoo struck a couple of fours in his 15 and the Jamaican think-tank decided to hand over the last-over duties to Samuels. A boundary was conceded on the first ball, but only two runs came off the next three deliveries. Derwin Christian took a couple off the fifth ball, and with a last-ball four needed, he only managed to hit the ball one-bounce to long-on to set about frenetic celebrations by the Jamaican team.

Put in, Jamaica were pegged back when Findlay was dismissed without scoring by Esuan Crandon, who returned to trap Gayle in the fifth over. But Samuels changed the course of their inning when he took 11 runs off a Crandon over before he chopped a delivery from left-am spinner Neil McGarrell onto his stumps for a run-a-ball 26. Danza Hyatt consumed 21 balls for his first ten runs before he freed his arms, blasting McGarrell for 14 runs in the 12th over, after which he turned his attention to Crandon, whom he hit for a brace of sixes. Hyatt found ideal support from Xavier Marshall, with whom he added 91 runs for the fourth wicket.

But Guyana pulled things back after Cush, the offspinner, claimed the first hat-trick in Stanford 20/20 history. In the 19th over, he bowled Hyatt for 59 with a flighted delivery, induced a false stroke from Wavell Hinds, who found the long-on fielder, before he completed the 'trick when Xavier Marshall, after scoring 31, came down the track and hammered the ball straight to McGarrell at long-on.