Bernard's six seals Jamaica's dominance

A six-wicket haul by David Bernard guided Jamaica to an innings and 27-run win against Guyana in St Phillip. Resuming on 161 for 4 after being asked to follow-on, Guyana were bowled out for 236. Nikita Miller gave Jamaica the first breakthrough in the second over of the morning when he had Sewnarine Chattergoon caught at short midwicket. A double-strike by Bernard set them back further to 173 for 7. Guyana resisted for an hour and a quarter with a stand of 58 between Davendra Bishoo and Veerasammy Permaul. Odean Brown had Bishoo caught at long-on for 18 before Bernard added the finishing touches. Jamaica, on top with 36 points, have drawn a bye in the next round, starting on Friday.

"We talked to a few of the Barbadian players, and they told us that the pitch would be slow and would turn a bit, so it was surprising to see them win the toss and put us in to bat," Jamaica captain Tamar Lambert told CMC. "Knowing Guyana through the years, they always pack their sides with spinners, so I thought that they would have batted first, and then bring their players into play over the last few days of the game."

Guyana captain Chattergoon reflected on a poor performance. "I thought our fielding let us down when Jamaica batted, and from there we were always behind in the game," he said. "Our batting also let us down badly in both innings. It's not going to get any easier, since Narsingh Deonarine is going to be travelling to Australia with West Indies for the next match, and Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan are still injured.

"We have a couple of new players that will join the squad for the next match, and although this may look like adversity, it presents an opportunity for them to make a name for themselves."

Trinidad and Tobago came close to pulling off an unlikely win at the Kensington Oval, but Barbados' ninth-wicket pair of Kemar Roach and Patrick Browne hung on for a close draw. Resuming overnight on 299 for 7, Denesh Ramdin completed his century and carried on to 166 before T&T declared at 412 for 8. Chasing 298, a draw seemed certain when Barbados proceeded to 95 for 2 at tea. But legspinner Imran Khan started a collapse when he had the captain Ryan Hinds (42) caught at cover with the score on 158 for 3, breaking a stand of 88 for the third wicket with opener Jason Haynes. Soon after, Haynes was run out for 83 by a direct hit from Rayad Emrit from deep square leg while attempting a second run. He had faced 178 balls and hit seven fours. Kevin Stoute was caught by the substitute Richard Kelly in the deep off Imran with the score at 175 for 5 and four runs later, Kelly's accurate throw to the bowler's end ran out Dwayne Smith for 11.

In Imran's next over, Nikolai Charles swept straight into the hands of Emrit at square leg for a duck and Barbados were in trouble at 179 for 7, before Tino Best was caught at slip. Browne and Roach then batted out the last five overs to deny T&T a victory.

"This was a great effort from the Trinidad and Tobago team and everyone played a part in helping us come so close to what would have been a memorable victory," the captain Daren Ganga said. "We knew once we had Barbados batting second and we pushed the panic button we could get a result. We didn't get the 10 wickets but this is a good comeback and we will use it as motivation going forward in the upcoming matches.

"It was a good batting pitch so we knew we had to set a target which would put pressure on Barbados and we were one bowler short with Ravi Rampaul unable to bowl in the match. We got three points and they got six but we ended on a high and we are happy about that."