Red Force, Pride on top after opening day of West Indies Championship

ST JOHN’S, An­tigua – Both the Trinidad and To­ba­go Red Force and Bar­ba­dos Pride have put them­selves in dom­i­nant po­si­tions against the Lee­ward Is­lands Hur­ri­canes and Ja­maica Scor­pi­ons, re­spec­tive­ly, at the end of play of Sun­day’s open­ing day of the West In­dies Cham­pi­onship.

Spin­ners Bryan Charles and Khary Pierre took three wick­ets apiece to help skit­tle out the Hur­ri­canes for 138. T&T then made a strong re­ply to close in on first in­nings points.

Kevin Wick­ham had the ho­n­our of reg­is­ter­ing the first cen­tu­ry of the tour­na­ment to pro­pel the Pride to a com­pet­i­tive to­tal against the home side.

Mean­while, the Wind­ward Is­lands Vol­ca­noes and de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons Guyana Harpy Ea­gles shared open­ing day ho­n­ours.

At Coolidge Crick­et Ground in An­tigua: Off­spin­ner Bryan Charles and left-arm spin­ner Khary Pierre ripped through the Lee­ward Is­lands Hur­ri­canes’ low­er or­der to rout them for a pal­try 138 and put the Trinidad and To­ba­go Red Force in to­tal com­mand.

Open­ers Evin Lewis and Cephas Coop­er then bat­ted cau­tious­ly to car­ry their side to 62 with­out loss at the end of play, as T&T end­ed the day trail­ing by just 76 runs.

T&T’s fast bowl­ing trio of Jay­den Seales, An­der­son Phillip and Ter­rance Hinds were re­spon­si­ble for the ear­ly dam­age to the Hur­ri­canes’ in­nings af­ter they won the toss and opt­ed to bowl first.

Phillip struck in the day’s sec­ond over by hav­ing Mikyle Louis caught for a duck, be­fore Hinds ac­count­ed for the wick­et of Kadeem Hen­ry for 11.

Seales then bowled the dan­ger­ous Jew­el An­drew for 27 and Pierre rat­tled the stumps of skip­per Justin Greaves for sev­en, to re­duce the Hur­ri­canes to 59 for four.

Seales then re­turned to trap Kea­cy Car­ty lbw for 18 and Pierre grabbed his sec­ond wick­et by dis­miss­ing Je­re­mi­ah Louis for a duck, to see them fall in­to fur­ther de­spair at 87 for six.

It took a fight­ing knock of 44 from Jah­mar Hamil­ton to get them up to their even­tu­al score. Hamil­ton joined forces with Rah­keem Corn­wall to add 48 runs for the sev­enth wick­et.

But once the lat­ter was dis­missed for a stub­born 15 off 67 balls, the Hur­ri­canes lost their last four wick­ets for a mere three runs.

Charles end­ed with 3-9, Pierre took 3-34, while Seales grabbed 2-31.

In re­sponse, Lewis scored an un­beat­en 28 off 78 balls and Coop­er end­ed on 22 not out off 82 balls, to give Ja­maica a sol­id start to their in­nings.

At Ched­win Park in Ja­maica: Kevin Wick­ham scored an im­pres­sive bound­ary-stud­ded cen­tu­ry – the first of this year’s com­pe­ti­tion – to guide Bar­ba­dos Pride to a size­able 348 in 81.4 overs in their first in­nings af­ter choos­ing to bat against Ja­maica Scor­pi­ons.

Wick­ham blast­ed 153 off 193 balls, with 12 six­es and six fours and led a suc­cess­ful fight­back by the vis­i­tors who at one stage were strug­gling on 23 for three.

Fast bowler Mar­quino Mind­ley gave the home side a dream start when he bowled cap­tain Kraigg Brath­waite for a duck and Jonathan Drakes for 10, while Ojay Shields trapped Shayne Mose­ley lbw for six to leave the Pride in dis­ar­ray.

How­ev­er, Wick­ham and Kyle May­ers res­cued the in­nings dur­ing a 117-run part­ner­ship for the fourth wick­et that brought the match back to lev­el terms.

Off­spin­ner Peat Salmon and Mind­ley put Ja­maica back in the as­cen­dan­cy, with the for­mer bowl­ing May­ers af­ter he scored 64 off 89 balls, and the lat­ter dis­miss­ing Leniko Bouch­er for a duck to leave the Pride in trou­ble at 141 for five.

But once again, Wick­ham found a worth­while part­ner, this time in Shamar Springer, with their 130-run part­ner­ship to­tal­ly trans­form­ing the match.

Wick­ham brought up his fourth first-class cen­tu­ry off 140 balls by scam­per­ing a quick sin­gle to mid-off, off the bowl­ing of Salmon. Once home safe­ly, he took off his hel­met and raised his bat in ju­bi­la­tion, with Springer com­ing down the pitch to con­grat­u­late him with a hug.

Mind­ley was back in the thick of things to give his side a much-need­ed break­through, bowl­ing Springer for 40 off 69 balls, to leave the score 271 for six.

Wick­ham was al­so ably sup­port­ed by the low­er or­der, with Joshua Bish­op scor­ing 37 off 50 balls, Jo­hann Layne con­tribut­ing an un­beat­en 15, while Jomel War­ri­can made nine.

It al­lowed the Pride’s last four wick­ets to add a valu­able 77 runs, with Wick­ham be­ing the sev­enth bats­man to be dis­missed short­ly af­ter cross­ing the 150-mark.

Mind­ley fin­ished with fig­ures of 4-32, while Salmon claimed 4-104.

The Scor­pi­ons made a pos­i­tive start in their re­sponse, fin­ish­ing the day on 17 with­out loss, still trail­ing by 331 runs go­ing in­to Mon­day’s sec­ond day.

At the Sir Vi­vian Richards Sta­di­um in An­tigua: Left-arm spin­ner Gu­dakesh Motie grabbed six wick­ets for de­fend­ing champs Guyana Harpy Ea­gles, who are locked in an even con­test with the Wind­ward Is­lands Vol­ca­noes.

Led by a knock of 95 from Ac­k­eem Au­guste and a hero­ic ef­fort by their low­er or­der, the Vol­ca­noes were dis­missed for a com­pet­i­tive 286 in 86.1 overs af­ter be­ing sent in to bat.

Hav­ing to nav­i­gate a soli­tary over be­fore the end of play, the Harpy Ea­gles did so with­out much alarm to close on two with­out loss.

The Vol­ca­noes would have been eye­ing a big­ger to­tal, though, giv­en their promis­ing start.

Pac­er Keemo Paul struck ear­ly by dis­miss­ing Stephan Pas­cal with just sev­en runs on the board, but Kavem Hodge joined Au­guste at the crease to so­lid­i­fy the in­nings in a 79-run part­ner­ship.

The Vol­ca­noes looked to be coast­ing at 86 for one, but medi­um pac­er Nial Smith had Hodge caught for 31 and Paul dis­missed cap­tain Al­ick Athanaze for one, to see them slip to 87 for three.

Au­guste and Sunil Am­bris stemmed the flow of wick­ets dur­ing a 61-run stand for the fourth wick­et that stead­ied the ship and car­ried them to a rel­a­tive­ly healthy score of 148 for three.

But the loss of four wick­ets for 55 runs, in­clud­ing that of Au­guste, who fell ag­o­nis­ing­ly short of a cen­tu­ry af­ter fac­ing 117 runs and strik­ing 12 fours, brought the Harpy Ea­gles back in­to the match.

Motie was sole­ly re­spon­si­ble for the col­lapse, snar­ing the wick­ets of Am­bris for 30, Au­guste, Shadrack Descarte for 15 and Noelle Leo for a duck.

They would have been hop­ing to re­strict their op­po­nents to un­der 250 af­ter re­duc­ing them to 203 for sev­en, but knocks of 42 from Ryan John, 35 from Dar­ron Nedd and 18 from Ken­neth Dem­ber en­sured the Vol­ca­noes got up to a de­cent tar­get.

Motie end­ed with the im­pres­sive fig­ures of 6-73, while Paul took 2-27.

CMC

Sum­marised scores

At Coolidge Crick­et Ground in An­tigua: Trinidad and To­ba­go Red Force trail Lee­ward Is­lands Hur­ri­canes by 76 runs with 10 wick­ets re­main­ing.

HUR­RI­CANES 138 in 60.5 overs (Jah­mar Hamil­ton 44, Jew­el An­drew 27, Kea­cy Car­ty 18, Rah­keem Corn­wall 15, Kadeem Hen­ry 12; Bryan Charles 3-9, Khary Pierre 3-34, Jay­den Seales 2-31) vs RED FORCE 62-0 in 26 overs (Evin Lewis 28 not out, Cephas Coop­er 22 not out).

At the Sir Vi­vian Richards Sta­di­um in An­tigua: Guyana Harpy Ea­gles trail Wind­ward Is­lands Vol­ca­noes by 284 runs with 10 wick­ets re­main­ing.

VOL­CA­NOES 286 in 86.1 overs (Ac­k­eem Au­guste 95, Ryan John 42, Dar­ron Nedd 35, Kavem Hodge 31, Sunil Am­bris 30, Ken­neth Dem­ber 18, Shadrack Descarte 15; Gu­dakesh Motie 6-73, Keemo Paul 2-27) vs HARPY EA­GLES 2-0 in one over.

At Ched­win Park in Ja­maica: Ja­maica Scor­pi­ons trail Bar­ba­dos Pride by 331 runs with 10 wick­ets re­main­ing.

PRIDE 348-8 in 81.4 overs (Kevin Wick­ham 153, Kyle May­ers 64, Shamar Springer 40, Joshua Bish­op 37, Jo­hann Layne 15, Jonathan Drakes 10; Mar­quino Mind­ley 4-32, Peat Salmon 4-104) vs SCOR­PI­ONS 17-0 in six overs.