Tony Becca, Contributor

The Carib Beer Challenge Trophy final between Jamaica and two-time defending champions Trinidad and Tobago continued at Sabina Park yesterday and, at the end of day two, it was all smiles for the handful of hometown supporters scattered around the ground.

After ripping out Trinidad and Tobago for 121 on the opening day and then after sliding to 29 for three, recovering to 107 for four at stumps, Jamaica, hunting the coveted triple after earlier winning the one-day KFC title and the four-day Carib Beer Series and thanks, many thanks, to Brendan Nash and also to captain Tamar Lambert, were in command and looking good.

Odds for home team

At stumps on another lovely day, the scoreboard read Trinidad and Tobago 121 and 43 without loss off 21 overs with captain Daren Ganga on 24 and Adrian Barath on 19; Jamaica 293. And with three days to go, the odds are in the home team's favour.

Resuming on 56 and three, respectively, Nash and Lambert settled in quietly against the off spin of Amit Jaggernauth and the pace of Ravi Rampaul before, on the way to a solid fifth-wicket partnership of 106 off 45 overs in 167 minutes, they stepped up the pace, not with scintillating stroke play, but with easy, fluent and confident strokes, many of which, and particularly so from the bat of the left-handed Nash, stopped inches short of the boundary despite coming from out of the middle of the bat.

Stroked boundaries

Batting like a seasoned pro, picking the length of the deliveries perfectly, going back and across when he should and going forward when he should, the 30-year-old Australian-born Nash - of Jamaican parents - in his first season for Jamaica, ticked off his second century in the regional competition in his seventh match and his fifth in first-class cricket during an innings which lasted for 385 minutes and 291 deliveries.

After scoring 91 not out versus Guyana and 102 versus Trinidad and Tobago during the league, Nash - a small man in stature - in his best innings this season, stroked 11 boundaries with the best of them being a lovely drive off medium-pacer Richard Kelly.

This sped away to the long-off boundary, a sweep off left-arm wrist-spinner Dave Mohammed to the square-leg boundary and shortly after stepping past the century mark, a drive to the wide long off boundary off medium-pacer Kieron Pollard and a straight drive that whistled past the boots of pacer Mervyn Dillon.

SCOREBOARD

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO 1st Innings 121

(N. Miller 5-29)

JAMAICA 1st Innings

(overnight 104 for four)

B. Parchment c Bravo

b Jaggernauth	34
D. Hyatt run out (Jaggernauth)	3

M. Samuels c (sub) Perkins

b Rampaul	9
W. Hinds c Mohammed b Dillon	0

B. Nash c wkpr Simmons

b Rampaul	117
T. Lambert cGanga b Dillon	50

+C. Baugh c wkpr Simmons

b Rampaul	17
N. Miller c wkpr Simmons b Kelly	11
J. Taylor not out	27
D. Powell c Mohammed b Dillon	14
O. Brown c wkpr Simmons b Kelly	4
Extras: (w1, nb6)	7
TOTAL: (all out)	293

Fall of wickets: 1-5 (Hyatt), 2-17 (Samuels), 3-29 (Hinds), 4-94 (Parchment), 5-200 (Lambert), 6-231 (+Baugh), 7-243 (Nash), 8-258 (Miller), 9-285 (Powell).

Bowling: Rampaul 18-2-75-3 (nb4); Dillon 18-7-57-3 (nb2); Kelly 14.2-2-46-2; Jaggernauth 29-8-56-1; Mohammed 16-3-31-0; Pollard 11-3-28-0 (w1).