T&T facing defeat against the Windwards

T&T cricketers were staring down the barrel of a gun against the Windward Islands at the close of play on the second day of their Regional First Class clash at the Arnos Vale playing field in St. Vincent. After making just 179 in their first innings, the T&T bowlers struck back to dismiss the Windwards for 260 for a lead of 81 runs. However, when stumps were drawn the Red Force was stuttering on 52 for five wickets – still needing another 29 runs to make  the Windwards bat again.

The home team resumed on the overnight position of 23 without loss and was propped up by left hander Devon Smith who struck a brilliant 99 before he was out. He fell one run short of completing three successive centuries in the series to date, after his twin tons in the opening match against the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) at the Beausejour in St. Lucia.
Smith stood firm, in the face of some hostile bowling from pacer Ravi Rampaul who also got the ball to swing at the seaside venue. He made early inroads into the Windwards batting but he and the rest of the T&T bowling unit were held up by Smith and Tyrone Theophile who scored 70. Rampaul came back towards the end to wrap up the innings with figures of 5/65 but not before a stubborn 32 not out from Dalton Polius. Also bowling well was leg-spinner Yannick Cariah who finished with 4/39.

Batting a second time, the T&T batsmen were troubled by the Windwards pacers Kenroy Peters and the Delorn Johnson and looked completely out of sorts against their offerings. Peters who normally plays his domestic cricket for Clarke Road United in Trinidad ended the day with 2/14 to follow his 3/28 in the first essay, while Johnson followed his 2/32 with 2/19, when the umpires called play for the day.

Scoreboard 

T&T 1st Innings 179
WINDWARDS 1st Innings
(overnight 23 without loss)
D Smith b Cariah     99
T Theophile c wkp Ramdin b Rampaul     70
A Fletcher c c wkp Ramdin b Rampaul     0
D Hector b Rampaul     0
L Sebastien c Gabriel b Rampaul     22
D Polius not out     32
L James lbw b Jaggernauth     7
G Mathurin lbw b Cariah     0
K Peters c wkp Ramdin b Cariah     0
N Pascal c Guillen b Pascal 1
D Johnson c Cariah b Rampaul     17
Extras (b2, lb4, w5, nb1)     12
TOTAL (all out, 78.5 overs)     260
Fall of wickets: 1-124, 2-124, 3-124, 4-168, 5-214, 6-227, 7-228, 8-228, 9-234, 10-260.
Bowling: Jaggernauth 27-7-71-1, Gabriel 12-1-50-0, Rampaul 18.5-6-65-5, Emrit 5-1-21-0, Simmons 2-1-8-0, Cariah 14-4-39-4.

T&T 1st Innings
A Barath c Smith Mathurin..........................................15
J Guillen c wkp James b Johnson................................ 7
E Lewis c Polius b Johnson..................................... 5
L Simmons b Peters...................................................... 2
J Mohammed c Smith b Peters........................... 8
A Jaggernauth not out............................................... 4
D Ramdin not out.............................................................4
Extras (b4, w1, nb2) ..........................................................7
TOTAL (5 wkts, 21 overs) .................................52
Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-15, 3-27, 4-40, 5-48.
Bowling: Pascal 4-0-15-0, Johnson 6-1-9-2, Peters 5-0-14-2, Mathurin 4-1-10-1, Sebastien 2-2-0-0.
Position: T&T require 29 runs, with five wickets intact, to make Windwards bat again.
Toss: Windwards.
Umpires: L Abraham, N Shivsankar.