Spinners Gudakesh Motie and Kevin Sinclair returned identical figures of 3-32 as Guyana Harpy Eagles inflicted a 212-run defeat on Jamaica Scorpions in the sixth-round of the Cricket West Indies Four-Day Championship at Sabina Park on Saturday.
The victory is a remarkable one for the Harpy Eagles, who recovered brilliantly from the first day position of 61-6 to post 424, thanks largely to Kemol Savory’s career-best 155 and a second consecutive century from skipper Tevin Imlach.
This is the Harpy Eagles fourth victory on the trot, after a no-result and a defeat in their first two matches. The resurgence has ignited hopes of a successful title defence.
“Having been 60 for six and to come back and score 400 runs shows a lot of character from the team. We bat very deep,” the Observer newspaper here quoted Imlach as saying.
“It was a clinical performance from the bowlers. I always said if we got one or two wickets early [on Saturday] it would be a different game, so credit to the bowlers because they were very disciplined again in this game.
“We all believed that once we do what we do well – which is to stay disciplined and be consistent – we’d do well against any team. It [finished] much earlier than we expected but, nevertheless, we were confident we would have done it.”
Imlach helped lead the first innings recovery by carving out an unbeaten 101 to post his third first class hundred. He retired hurt on one early in the morning session of the opening day but returned to feature in a 154-run, eighth wicket stand with wicketkeeper Kemol Savory who carved out a brilliant 155.
Veteran left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul then weighed in with a five-wicket haul to hurt Scorpions and Harpy Eagles quickly rattled up 147 for four declared in their second innings, leaving their opponents with a 419 as a victory target.
And while Scorpions ended day three on 123 for two, they collapsed quickly on last Saturday’s final day to lose heavily.
Captain Brandon King, the West Indies white-ball batsman, described his side’s performance as “unacceptable”, pointing especially to the effort in the field which allowed Harpy Eagles to recover so well on the opening day.
“I am very disappointed, especially [because of] the position that we were in in the first innings,” he said.
“Having them 60 for six and for them to make 424 is unacceptable in any cricket. It really put us on the back foot early in the game.
“We need improvement in all aspects. In the first innings we dropped about seven catches, so that’s very important [because] it gave them that big total.
“In both innings we didn’t bat well, [even though] it seems a good batting pitch, in my opinion. We definitely should have made more runs in both innings. With those two major things, you will lose games.”
The Harpy Eagles face the Combined Campuses and Colleges in their final round game, starting April 17.