BRIDGETOWN, Bar­ba­dos–Dis­card­ed West In­dies cap­tain De­nesh Ramdin smashed 70 from 76 balls to set the tone for West In­dies Ma­roon to beat West In­dies Blue by 20 runs in an ex­cit­ing 50 overs a side prac­tice match here on Fri­day.

Ja­son Mo­hammed al­so starred with the bat, hit­ting 58 from 67 balls to pro­pel West In­dies Ma­roon to 241 for eight at the Three Ws Oval in Cave Hill, Bar­ba­dos.

Sulie­man Benn grabbed three wick­ets and Mo­hammed re­turned to snatch two to sti­fle the run chase as West In­dies Blue, with a late surge pow­ered by low­er or­der bats­men, reached 221 for eight when the overs ran out.

Jon-Russ Jages­sar picked up three wick­ets for 44 runs to dis­man­tle West In­dies Ma­roon, who stum­bled to 70 for three un­til Ramdin ar­rive to turn the in­nings around.

He struck two fours and four six­es while dom­i­nat­ing two im­por­tant part­ner­ships-a 53 run stand for the fourth wick­et with Dar­ren Bra­vo and a fifth wick­et re­cov­ery ef­fort with Ja­son Mo­hammed that pro­duced 84 runs.

There was al­so a third sig­nif­i­cant part­ner­ship be­tween Mo­hammed and Shamar Springer for the sixth wick­et that yield­ed 45 runs.

Ash­ley Nurs­es con­tributed 36, Springer 26 and Bra­vo scored 19 for West In­dies Ma­roon. Blues' run chase was se­vere­ly dis­rupt­ed by Benn who caused top or­der hav­oc when he re­moved Kraigg Brath­waite for 12, Kyle Hope for 32 and Kavem Hodge for 5 to fin­ish with three for ten from six overs.

Blues slid to 82 for the loss of six wick­ets be­fore tailen­der De­lorn John­son and mid­dle or­der bats­man Jah­mar Hamil­ton led a gal­lant fight-back with overs run­ning out.Hamil­ton scored an even 50 and brought the in­nings back on course by putting on 54 runs for the 8th wick­et with Veerasam­my Per­maul who scored 27.

Hamil­ton, whose knock fea­tured three fours and two six­es, al­so put to­geth­er 78 runs for the ninth wick­et with John­son who was un­beat­en on 59 with four fours and five six­es.The Match was re­duced to 45 overs-a-side, due to an hour-long de­lay to the start.

It in­volved main­ly mem­bers of the West In­dies One-day In­ter­na­tion­al squad prepar­ing for the up­com­ing se­ries against Pak­istan in the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates, and West In­dies A-Team prepar­ing for their up­com­ing tour of Sri Lan­ka.

West In­dies Ma­roon and West In­dies Blue will play an­oth­er 50 overs-a-side prac­tice match on Mon­day at the same venue.

CMC