Tony Becca, Contributing Editor

Jamaica skipper Tamar Lambert (third right) celebrates taking a wicket with teammates (from left) Carlton Baugh Jr., Nikita Miller, Xavier Marshall, Brendan Nash and David Bernard Jr., during play on the third day of their second-round Carib Beer Series match at Kensington, yesterday. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer

Jamaica, paced once again by their spin bowlers, including their captain and part-timer Tamar Lambert, defeated Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) by 10 wickets at Kensington Park yesterday and in the process jumped to maximum 24 points, in their bid to win the regional Carib Beer Series cricket tournament.

After dominating the first two days, Jamaica, as expected, wrapped up the scheduled four-day contest with a day to spare, as once again, for the third time in the match, the batting side collapsed dramatically with CCC, once moving along comfortably at 147 for three, losing seven wickets for 67 runs in 76 minutes off 19 overs.

In winning the match, Jamaica, who defeated the Leeward Islands by five wickets at Sabina Park one week ago, ticked off their second victory to make it a perfect two from two with four to go.

Final score: Combined Campuses and Colleges 99 and 213; Jamaica 286 and 27 without loss.

As it was at Sabina Park, Jamaica owed their success to their spin bowlers with left-arm spinner Nikita Miller, who picked up the first two wickets and the last two, finishing with four wickets for 65 runs off 31.4 overs, Lambert, who picked up the third and the fourth and started the slide while taking three for 59 off 20 non-stop overs, and right-arm leg-spinner Odean Brown who, after 10 wickets against the Leeward Islands after four in the first innings, pocketed three for 40 off 21 overs.

Breaking the partnership

Resuming at 36 for one with Simon Jackson on 15 and Nekoli Parris (75) on three, CCC batted defiantly and sometimes courageously until six minutes from lunch, with Jamaica, starting with Miller and Brown, then bringing in fast bowler Jermaine Lawson, then medium-pacer Brendan Nash, and then Miller again before Lambert brought himself into the attack, wringing the changes in an attempt to break the partnership.

With lunch just around the corner, however, with both batsmen in the 40s and looking nervous, Jackson went back to Miller, pulled at a shortish delivery, edged a catch to wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh Jr., and departed the scene one run short of what would have been a well-deserved half century after batting for 196 minutes, facing 131 deliveries and stroking two fours and hitting one six.

That was 116 for two, and with Lambert sending back Romel Currency for one, when the batsman went back, played to leg, missed the ball and was leg before wicket, it was 127 for three, 14 minutes after lunch.

With Floyd Reifer, the experienced left-hander, looking good despite surviving a couple appeals for leg before wicket, CCC looked set to push the match into the fourth day before the big man, the former West Indies batsman, started to go forward to Lambert, was beaten through the air, attempted to go back, and was trapped leg before wicket for four.

That was 147 for four, 47 minutes after the interval, and 76 minutes later, three minutes after the scheduled tea time, the innings was over.

Left with 27 runs to win, with almost the entire post-tea session and one to go, Xavier Marshall and Keith Hibbert saw Jamaica home after 6.1 overs with Marshall finishing the contest in style when he went back and pulled fast bowler Bennett to the wide long-on boundary.