Tony Becca, Contributing Editor

Jamaica's Odean Brown, the Man of the Match, celebrates taking his 10th wicket in the Carib Beer Series match against the Leeward Islands at Sabina Park yesterday. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

Jamaica, riding on the back of spinners Odean Brown and Nikita Miller and rescued by batsmen Wavell Hinds and David Bernard Jr. after a fiery burst by pacers Adam Sanford and Gavin Tonge had threatened to blow them away, jumped into the lead in the race for the Carib Beer regional four-day cricket title when they defeated the Leeward Islands at Sabina Park yesterday.

Final score: Leeward Islands 155 and 183, Jamaica 224 and 115 for five.

After leading on first innings at the end of the second day's play on Saturday, Jamaica, after skidding to 20 for four at the start of their second innings, wrapped up the match with five wickets and a day to spare.

It was, however, not as easy as the final scoreboard made it appear - at least not at the start of the victory chase, and definitely not before Hinds, 62, and Bernard, 26 not out, came together, steadied the ship, and carried the home team to victory with a fifth-wicket partnership of 80 runs off 122 deliveries in 86 minutes.

Set what appeared a modest 115 for victory with a minimum of 41 overs and an entire day to go, Jamaica, faced by some hostile bowling from Sanford and Tonge and to the surprise of the stunned audience, were reeling at eight for three in the sixth over and then 20 for four in the eighth over before, much to the relief of the fans, the left-handed Hinds and the right-handed Bernard came together, cooled the fire of the two pacers, and stroked Jamaica to victory.

In the third over, Keith Hibbert hooked at Sanford and was caught for one at mid-off, at five for one; in the fourth over, Xavier Marshall hooked at Tonge and was caught at fine-leg for zero, at seven for two; in the sixth over, Brendan Nash drove at Tonge, edged a catch to wicketkeeper Devon Thomas, and left the scene for two, at eight for three; and in the eighth over, captain Tamar Lambert, after a lovely drive off Sanford to the extra-cover boundary, went back to Tonge, left his bat dangling outside the off-stump, edged a catch to Thomas, and departed for four.

That was 20 for four with Tonge boasting figures of three for 12 off four overs, and Jamaica, at that time before the coming of Bernard to join Hinds, were sinking.

CORNERED BY SPIN

Earlier, cornered by the spin of Brown, the right-arm leg-spinner who, but for a few overs by pacer André Russell, operated all day from the north and took four wickets for 48 runs off 19.4 overs for an innings take of five for 72 off 28.4 and a match haul of 10 for 103 off 49.5, and Miller, the left-arm spinner who bowled from the south all day and took three for 31 off 23 overs for an innings take of four for 43 off 38 and a match haul of seven for 85 off 58 overs, the Leeward Islands batsmen, but for a gallant effort by opening batsman Moncin Hodge and a few mighty hits by tail-ender Sanford, died without a fight.

Resuming at 87 for two and only 18 runs in front, the Leeward Islands lost captain Omari Banks for 11 at 92 for three after only 15 minutes of the day's play - the batsman swinging at Brown and nicking a catch high to Lambert's right at slip.

From there on, with Brown and Mille between bowling over the wicket and around the wicket, and with wickets tumbling regularly, it was almost like a contest between the two Jamaica bowlers and the 20-year-old Moncin Hodge who batted solidly for 309 minutes, faced 267 deliveries, and stroked six boundaries before he was eighth out at 165 when he drove a return catch to Brown.