Streetwise Jacobs Does “Inside Job” On Bajans

Port-of-Spain, Trinidad – Steven Jacobs had a major say in the outcome of Thursday night’s Caribbean T20 contest, bowling Guyana to a big win over Barbados in a low-scoring affair. The highly-spirited off-spinner had the impressive figures of 4-1-13-2, as the 2010 champions held the Bajans to their lowest T20 score of 66 to defend the 108 they made earlier in the night.

Stephen Jacobs (left) collects his man-of-the-match award for this sterling performance agaist Barbados.WICB Media Photo/Randy Brooks

After letting the ball do the talking, Jacobs spoke of how he used “inside knowledge” of the Barbadian players to his advantage. The 24-year-old is a student at Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Barbados and spent part of last year playing in the local club competition there.

“One of the weaknesses of the Bajans is batting spin. The skipper tried to exploit that weakness tonight. Playing in Barbados helped a lot. I’m going to school in Barbados and playing for UWI so I get a chance to look at the batsmen in local cricket. That was a major thing for me and I also shared the knowledge with my team-mates. It worked out well tonight,” Jacobs said after he received the Man-of-the-Match trophy.

The match-winning figures were his best in T20 cricket and took Guyana to eight points from two matches. The defeat left Barbados on eight points from three matches. The table leaders are Trinidad and Tobago on nine points from three matches.

Jacobs noted that there is great belief in the camp after such a hard-fought comeback.

“Guyana is a never-say-die team. We will always put in 100 percent. Having 108 runs on the board we knew that there was still pressure there on Barbados. The ball was spinning and we knew that one of the strengths in our team is our spinning department. We executed really well tonight,” the former West Indies Under-19 vice captain added.

“This was one of my nights. I don’t have a secret to the way I perform. I just come out and stick to the basics of bowling in Twenty20 cricket – which is to be accurate and make life very difficult for the batsmen.”

The Caribbean T20 enters Day 6 at Queen’s Park Oval on Friday. Barbados will be back in action when they face Combined Campuses and Colleges at 8 pm (7 pm Jamaica Time). Before that Jamaica meet Leeward Islands at 4 pm (3 pm Jamaica Time).