JEROME Everton Taylor is back. The 29-year-old Jamaica fast bowler made the grand announcement, albeit before an audience that would not be classified as a ‘crowd’ at Sabina Park yesterday, that all but laid the foundation for victory by the home team in their first round West Indies Cricket Board regional four-day cricket match.

The former St Elizabeth Technical High School cricketer plowed his way back under the microscope of West Indies cricket with an appetising display of controlled fast bowling that saw Jamaica in with a sniff of victory early on Monday’s fourth and final day.

His five for 29 off 15.5 overs left Guyana on 219 for eight at the end of a day mixed with boredom and jaw-dropping drama. The visitors’ second innings score was much better than their 117 all out in the first innings though, to which Jamaica replied with 296 all out on Friday’s first day.

Bowling from the northern end in two spells during the day, Taylor slid through the Guyana innings like a recently sharpened knife, after the visitors had made a third day deposit of confidence in the team’s bank account with a positive start to play in the pre and post-lunch sessions.

Guyana were a mere 42 runs ahead with two wickets remaining and a full day’s play left, but those figures would do little to inspire the unthinkable happening, even though people still vividly remember Jamaica’s 49-run capitulation in a recent regional 50-over semi-final match against Barbados.

Resuming the day on 32 for one, after Jamaica led them by 177 runs on first innings, Guyana e-mailed early indications to all and sundry that the match would enter the fourth day.

Opener Assad Fudadin, who has represented the West Indies in three Test matches, and fellow diminutive left-hander Vishal Singh, who both resumed on eight, carried on positively to 90 without further loss at lunch, keeping everything that Jamaica Captain Tamar Lambert threw at them at a distance.

Singh crawled to 38 and Fudadin, 30, at the break, in a painstaking episode of cricket that brought on several yawns and unscheduled nods from the loyal Jamaican fan, but soon after it was the Taylor show up close.

On a dry and slow pitch, and getting much assistance from the old ball, the man who has 82 Test wickets from 29 matches under his belt and who last represented the West Indies in 2010, stepped up his act a notch.

It took Lambert, who bowled unchanged for 12 overs from the north, to make the breakthrough, having Fudadin caught by wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh Jnr for 33 with the score on 97, to be followed by the wickets of Narsingh Deonarine (38) caught and bowled Nkrumah Bonner, and Guyana Captain Christopher Barnwell, who gave Jermaine Blackwood a simple catch off spinner Jamie Merchant.

It was all Taylor after that, already bouyed by the overnight success of opener Sewnarine Chattergoon.

Anthony Bramble (11) fell to a catch by Horace Miller at 201 for five, and then a disciplined innings by Singh ended with the youngster giving John Campbell catching practice at second slip to a ball that, had he just come to the crease, would likely have left alone.

Singh’s gritty 73 off 277 balls in 300 minutes with four fours was a display of what application can achieve.

Taylor added dessert to his full course meal later in the afternoon with the scalps of Veersammy Permaul, caught by Campbell at second slip for one, and Amir Khan who pushed out to Miller under the bat off the last ball of the day.

In another game, Windward Islands beat Barbados by nine wickets on the third day of their match at the Beausejour Cricket Ground yesterday.

Resuming on six without loss in their second innings, Barbados were bowled out for 90 early on the third day in the day/night match.

Scores: BARBADOS 213 (Kraigg Brathwaite 82, Carlos Brathwaite 44; Nelon Pascal 5-61, Kenroy Peters 2-29) and 90 all out (Kraigg Brathwaite 15, Rashidi Boucher 14; Kenroy Peters 5-16, Nelon Pascal 3-42, Delorn Johnson 2-28).

WINDWARDS 252 for nine decl. (Lindon James 62 not out, Liam Sebastien 62, Keddy Lesporis 43; Miguel Cummins 4-49, Jonathan Carter 2-23) and 53 for one.