Je­lani Beck­les

The T&T Red Force spun its way to vic­to­ry over the Lee­ward Is­lands in the open­ing round of the West In­dies Crick­et Board Pro­fes­sion­al Crick­et League Four-Day tour­na­ment yes­ter­day, as Kavesh Kan­tas­ingh and Im­ran Khan grabbed six wick­ets each.

The Lee­ward Is­lands had no an­swers to the spin at­tack from T&T at Warn­er Park in St Kitts.

The Red Force spin­ners snatched 15 wick­ets in the match to start the sea­son with vic­to­ry by an in­nings and 23 runs.

The Lee­ward Is­lands Hur­ri­canes were bun­dled out for 118 in the first in­nings af­ter start­ing day three yes­ter­day on 55/4, hand­ing T&T a first in­nings lead of 207 runs.

Ja­maican Nkrumah Bon­ner was the on­ly bats­man to of­fer re­sis­tance, fin­ish­ing on an un­beat­en 57. Leg spin bowler Khan, T&T's top bowler in the tour­na­ment last year, grabbed 4/46 in 14 overs.

Left-arm spin­ner Kan­tas­ingh, who took five catch­es in the match, snatched 4/29 from 11 overs. Fast bowler Gavin Tonge played a cameo in the sec­ond in­nings, which in­clud­ed two fours and two six­es in a 20-run over off T&T cap­tain Rayad Em­rit.

How­ev­er, Tonge (41) could not pre­vent the Lee­wards from slid­ing to the mas­sive de­feat as the spin trio of Nars­ingh De­onar­ine (3/32), Kan­tas­ingh (2/48) and Khan (2/41) dis­missed the home team for 184 to wrap up the vic­to­ry.

Khan fin­ished with match fig­ures of 6/87, while Kan­tas­ingh took 6/77 in the match. Shane Jef­fers al­so fought hard for the Hur­ri­canes, scor­ing 36. T&T will have a tough as­sign­ment in the next round which bowls off on Fri­day. The Red Force will trav­el to Kens­ing­ton Oval to face Bar­ba­dos, a team which in­cludes nu­mer­ous West In­dies play­ers.

T&T will hope to con­tin­ue its form with the bat against Bar­ba­dos, as wick­et­keep­er Steven Kat­wa­roo (71), Evin Lewis (66), De­onar­ine (55) and Yan­nic Cari­ah (50) all cracked half cen­turies against the Hur­ri­canes. (CMC)