Was it a case of the Guyana Jaguars players not turning up mentally for the game or that the Combined Colleges and Campuses Marooners bowled with excellent line and length exploiting the weakness of Guyana batsmen, to bundle them out cheaply?
The Kensington, Barbados, pitch was certainly not to blame for the Guyana side going down for a paltry 204 off 49.1 overs in the 2018 Super50 regional cricket final last Sunday because in reply CCC’s opener Kyle Corbin smashed 72 from 53 balls on the same batting strip leading his team to victory with six wickets to spare to claim the title of Caribbean One-Day kings for the first time.
Corbin, a former captain of the side of university students from across the Caribbean, hit 60 of his runs in boundaries and partnered with Kjorn Ottley in a record opening stand of 109.
In contrast the Jaguars’ batting was led by opener Tagenarine Chanderpaul who stroked and at times struggled to make 56 off 95 balls and the team never put together a meaningful partnership.
A clear example of the Marooners bowlers not only maintaining the discipline of line and length in the game before the largest crowd for the 2018 competition, but also bowling to a plan on every Jaguars batsman is the way they tamed hard-hitting Guyana batsman Sherfane Rutherford.
The exceptional and lively Marooners pacer Jermaine Levy (4-43) repeatedly tested Rutherford with quick short deliveries, one of which crashed into his helmet as he missed a hook.
Besides a flaw in his love for hooking the ball the 20-year-old Guyanese does not move his feet well, and levy mixed short deliveries with tempting balls outside Rutherford’s off stump that saw the batsman often swinging and missing.
It was a short ball that eventually did the trick, as Rutherford, who managed 14 runs off 31 balls, got himself into an awkward position against a rising delivery and skied a catch to short mid-wicket off Levy in the 40th over.
Ten-time champions Jaguars, who last won the title in 2005 when they beat Barbados, never appeared to be in the game mentally Sunday with their batsmen failing to make any stand of note.
Then Man-of-the-Match Corbin’s onslaught took the spirit out of the Jaguars’ bowlers.
This was Guyana’s 17th final with the last one being in 2015 when they lost to Trinidad and Tobago Red Force.
Scores: Jaguars 204 off 49.1 overs (Tagenarine Chanderpaul 56, Raymon Reifer 38, Trevon Griffith 20; Jermaine Levy 4-43, Carlos Brathwaite 3-42, Akeem Jordan 2-30).
Marooners 205 for four off 37.4 overs (Kyle Corbin 72, Kjorn Ottley 45, Carlos Brathwaite 30 not out; Romario Shepherd 2-41).
