JAMAICA Scorpions Captain Brandon King says some facets of his team’s play were unacceptable during the harrowing 212-run defeat to Guyana Harpy Eagles in the sixth-round, regional four-day match at Sabina Park.

Chasing an imposing 419 runs for victory the Scorpions, who were 123-2 overnight, folded for 212 in just over two hours play on Saturday’s final day.

Scores: Harpy Eagles 424 (116.3 ovs) & 147-4 decl (35.3 ovs); Scorpions 153 (61.1 ovs) & 206 (71.1 ovs).

It was the fourth defeat in six outings for the Scorpions while titleholders Harpy Eagles were winning their fourth of the season.

King lamented his team letting the Harpy Eagles off the hook when they were 61-6 on the opening day and recovered to compile 424 runs. He counted all of seven dropped catches in that first innings alone.

“I am very disappointed, especially [because of] the position that we were in in the first innings. Having them 60-6 and for them to make 424 is unacceptable in any cricket. It really put us on the back foot early in the game,” the 29-year-old said during a post-match interview.

“We need improvement in all aspects. In the first innings we dropped about seven catches, so that’s very important [because] it gave them that big total.

“In both innings we didn’t bat well, [even though] it seems a good batting pitch, in my opinion. We definitely should have made more runs in both innings. With those two major things, you will lose games,” the Scorpions skipper outlined.

On the final morning the Scorpions harboured slim hopes with premier batsmen King and Kirk McKenzie at the wicket, but when both fell in the early exchanges the narrow window of opportunity effectively slammed shut.

“We started today in a decent position, the game was balanced. Obviously me and Kirk wanted to build a partnership and bat out the first session… [but] we lost two early wickets and we didn’t get to build any partnership after that. It’s a problem that’s been plaguing us and we really need to address it,” King explained.

Kemol Savory, the 27-year-old Harpy Eagles wicketkeeper, and Tevin Imlach, the Harpy Eagles captain, both made hundreds in the first innings which tipped the scales in their team’s favour.

Imlach, also 27, highlighted his team’s all-round qualities exemplified by their first-innings batting recovery and the professionalism shown by the bowling unit.

“Having been 60-6 and to come back and score 400 runs shows a lot of character from the team. We bat very deep,” he told journalists.

“It was a clinical performance from the bowlers. I always said if we got one or two wickets early [on Saturday] it would be a different game, so credit to the bowlers because they were very disciplined again in this game.

“We all believed that once we do what we do well — which is to stay disciplined and be consistent — we’d do well against any team. It [finished] much earlier than we expected but, nevertheless, we were confident we would have done it,” Imlach said.

It was always going to be highly improbable for the Scorpions to score the 296 runs on a last-day pitch to defeat the Harpy Eagles but West Indies Test left-hander McKenzie and King, on respective scores of 39 and 13 not out from Friday, would have kept the Harpy Eages marginally nervous at the start, at least.

Any concerns the visitors had were allayed when King was bowled by fast bowler Nial Smith for 15, and two runs later McKenzie (40) was dismissed by left-arm finger spinner Gudakesh Motie.

The Scorpions’ resistance was minimal thereafter, outside of Peat Salmon who made 30 before he was the last man out. Motie and off-spinner Kevin Sinclair ended with indentical figures of 3-32 while West Indies Under-19 pacer Isai Thorne had 2-30. Veteran left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul, who snared five wickets on the first innings, claimed 1-37 in the second.