St Catherine in Senior Cup quarters driving seat

NATIONAL PLAYER Carlos Brown scored a century while spinners Peat Salmon and Jeavor Royal bagged four and three wickets, respectively, to put St Catherine CC in the driver’s seat against St Mary Cricket Association in their Jamaica Cricket Association two-day Senior Cup quarter-final match at Chedwin Park.

Brown, who made his debut for Jamaica in the recent regional four-day championship, scored 101 as St Catherine, replying to St Mary’s 83 all out, reached 288 for nine at stumps, a lead of 205 runs.

The right-handed Brown faced 159 balls and hit 12 fours and two sixes as he and opener Kennar Lewis put on 68 runs in a second-wicket partnership, with Lewis going on to make an even 50 before he was bowled by Darrion Walker.

Walker has so far bagged three wickets for 106 runs, with Tyrone Daley also picking up three scalps for 26.

Earlier, it was the spin twins Salmon and Royal that restricted the St Mary batting to a mere 83 runs after they were asked to take the first strike. St Mary never got going after being 14 for three in the sixth over and then 65 for six in the 17th.

Off-spinner Salmon finished with four wickets for 18 runs from six overs while Royal ended with three wickets for 12 from four. Elvis O’Connor also picked up two wickets for 35 as Daley was St Mary’s top scorer with 20 runs.

Elsewhere, St Ann Cricket Association are also in command of their quarter-final game against Westmoreland at the Noranda Bauxite grounds in Discovery Bay.

At stumps, Westmoreland were struggling on 60 for seven, replying to St Ann’s first-innings score of 312 for eight declared.

Christopher Lamont has so far bagged six wickets for 34 runs in helping to restrict Westmoreland. Okkeno Farquharson top-scored with 33.

Earlier, Damion Bryce hit an even hundred in St Ann’s formidable total, with Damani Sewell scoring 85 and Suwayne Wilson 46 against five wickets for 77 runs from Javial Simpson.

TOUGH ENCOUNTER

Over at the Manley Horne Park in St Elizabeth, the home side is also finding the going tough against the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) in their low-scoring encounter so far.

After restricting the JDF to 114 all out in 32.2 overs, St Bess were skittled out for just 63 runs, with seamer Leighton Leslie bagging seven wickets for 34 runs and fast bowler Andre Dennis bagging three wickets for 20 runs.

Leslie also came up trumps with the bat for the JDF, top scoring with 40, while national player Tevin Gilzene made 25 against 4-41 from Romaine Nembhard and three wickets for Joseph Brown.

Batting a second time, JDF reached 37 without loss at stumps to lead by 88 runs.

At Nelson Oval, national player Romaine Morris scored 120 off 147 balls to lead Kingston CC to 247 for two against Mico University College, who opted to field.

Javaughn Buchanan weighed in with 69 while Nicholas Nelson has so far scored 42 not out. Justin Walters and Chevonie Grant have picked up the wickets to fall so far.