After four seasons of first-class cricket, Nikita Miller can accurately boast that when he excels, Jamaica win.

MILLER... modesty and humility were perhaps the most noticeable aspects of the player

Not that the slim-built left-arm finger spinner - a native of Williamsfield in northern St Elizabeth and a past student of St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) who turns 26 on May 16 - is likely to be caught boasting.

Miller's modesty and humility were perhaps the most noticeable aspects of post-match interviews on Saturday following his match-winning 10-wicket haul which carried Jamaica to a thumping nine-wicket triumph over Trinidad and Tobago in the Carib Beer Challenge final at Sabina Park.

The Man-of-the-Match and the top bowler of the Carib Beer season with 42 wickets, took time out to thank team-mates, senior players and coaches for their support and advice. And he credited "hard work" for allowing him to find his way back to the top of the regional first-class bowling table after what he himself described as "two bad seasons".

Those "bad seasons" were '06 when he picked up 11 wickets in four games and Jamaica played inexplicably poor cricket to place last in the Carib Cup (league) and in '07 when he took just six wickets at 36.66 each as his country placed third.

It was a different story in Miller's debut season of 2005 when Jamaica easily won the league - played then on a home and away basis - as well as the Challenge Final.

Back then, Miller, utilising a nagging length and line captured 39 wickets to be the region's top wicket-taker for an average of 19.56 each in 10 matches.

His success in the just-ended 2008 first class season has again paralleled a double-title campaign for his country. Jamaica easily won the Carib Cup, losing just once to Barbados in that country, after taking first innings points, before brushing aside Trinidad and Tobago in the Challenge Final.

This time around his bag of 42 wickets came in just seven games at a miserly 14.85 each. All told, Miller now has 101 wickets in 26 first class games at 20.06 per wicket.

Those knowledgeable cricket watchers who were at Sabina Park last week for the Challenge Final would have noticed something very different about Miller's bowling. His tight, nagging control remained but he was also extracting far sharper turn and seemed more prepared to vary his flight - with additional loop - than used to be the case. Also, he utilised a more attacking line, eschewing - for the most part - the negative leg stump tactics for which he has been criticised in the past.

Miller puts his improvement down to "hard work" and from listening to others. Among those he has given a keen ear is former West Indies coach, Australian Bennett King, whom he says, suggested he widen the grip on the ball "a little bit". Miller took the advice and now finds he is spinning the ball more. "I now get more rotation on the ball," he explained.

That greater "rotation" no doubt helped as Miller secured his maiden five-wicket haul in first class cricket in the first innings of the Challenge Final followed by another in the second innings, for a match return of 10-121.

Junior Bennett, the Jamaica senior coach who has worked with the left-arm spinner for more than a decade, having coached him at STETHS, says Miller's greatest strengths are his control, intelligence, good work ethic and willingness to listen.

"He wants to do well, he works hard and he thinks the cricket," said Bennett. "He (Miller) is not afraid to ask questions, to find out how he is bowling and what he needs to do to improve," Bennett added.

For the Jamaica coach the "great thing" about Miller's advance this season in terms of spinning and flighting the ball is "that he has retained his control".

Cricket watchers have noted that Miller is also mentally tough as evidenced by his tendency to get vital runs in the lower order when Jamaica are under pressure. Miller, who bats right hand, has a sound technique and wants to significantly boost his first class runs tally of 466 and his batting average of 16.06. "I want to be an allrounder," he told the Observer.

Miller, one of only a few current Jamaica players to have missed out on the regional Under-19 tournament, accepts that after his feats this season - particularly in the final which was televised region-wide - he is in line for the upcoming West Indies training camp ahead of the Australian tour of the Caribbean. But he insists that even should he miss out, he will not lose focus.

"If I am not called, I would just have to go back to doing even more work to improve myself," he said. "The way I see it, this season has just been one more stepping stone for me," he added.

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