Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) Captain Leighton Leslie praised his team’s batting depth after they held on for a three-wicket victory over Kingston CC in the Jamaica Cricket Association’s 50-over semi-final match at Up Park Camp on Saturday.

The JDF soldiers are down to face title holders St Mary CA in next Saturday’s championship match at Sabina Park. St Mary advanced to the final after beating hosts Kensington CC by eight runs at Kensington Park in the day’s other semi-final.

In the contest that went to the wire at Up Park Camp, the JDF soldiers, led by Tevin Gilzene’s unbeaten century, required every bit of their allotted 50 overs to reach 268-7 in reply to Kingston’s challenging 267 all out.

Scores: Kingston 267 (49.1 overs); JDF 268-7 (50 overs)

“We had a batting plan, we told ourselves that once we batted the 50 overs, we should get those 268 runs. Gilzene batted the full 50 overs and scored 130-odd and the rest of the guys supported him. We bat deep… so at no time we were really in fear of losing,” Leslie told the Jamaica Observer.

Taking first strike, Kingston, without top batsman Brandon King, who is on West Indies duty, had a commanding start and were 202-3 in the 40th over. But a clutter of wickets arrested their momentum as they searched for the imposing 300-run mark.

Garth Garvey made 74, with Geordae Seymour adding 49 and Jevaughn Buchanan making 35.

JDF’s Gordon Bryan took 4-52, while Leslie and Andre Dennis took two wickets each.

Gilzene’s dominant 157-ball 131 was the fulcrum of the JDF reply. No other batsman reached 30.

For Kingston, Everton O’Hara took 3-44 and Patrick Harty chipped in with 2-45.

At Kensington Park, the St Mary team made 238 all out and survived Leroy Lugg’s blistering century in bowling out the hosts for 230.

Scores: St Mary 238 (47.1 overs); Kensington 230 (43.3 overs)

St Mary skipper Andre Creary said the encounter was one of ebb and flow.

“The way that we won was very emotional because we got off to a wonderful start but in the middle overs we lost a few wickets and the run rate dipped a bit. Then when we bowled we actually got off to a poor start, we didn’t stick to our plans and it cost us. But after we got out Leroy Lugg we were confident they wouldn’t get to the score we posted,” Creary said.

Batting first after they lost the toss, the St Mary team got off to a solid start, reaching 133-1 in the 25th over. But they fell away badly toward the back end of the innings, losing their final six wickets for 44 runs.

Jamaica Scorpions batsman Alwyn Williams, who opened the innings for St Mary, scored 73 from 67 deliveries, while Orlando Lyons and Tyrone Daley chipped in with 33 and 32, respectively.

Denniel Griffiths claimed 3-17, while Ryan Francis had 3-29 for Kensington.

In reply, Kensington, powered by Lugg’s 60-ball onslaught of 111 runs, were 175-4 nearly halfway into the innings before they too suffered a calamitous collapse. Their last five wickets fell for 42 runs, with no other batsman passing 20.

For St Mary, Jermaine Chisholm snatched 4-30 while Sheldon Pryce took 3-31.

— Sanjay Myers