Kea­gan Sim­mons propped up T&T Team B with a half-cen­tu­ry (68) on the first day of the Red Force's Four-Day tri­al match at Gilbert Park, Cal­i­for­nia, on Wednes­day to fin­ish on 223 for five. Team A won the toss and opt­ed field first.

While Sim­mons lost his open­ing part­ner Leonar­do Julien nine balls in­to the in­nings, he would see a top or­der col­lapse ear­ly on. Julien went for ze­ro and was quick­ly fol­lowed back to the pavil­ion by Isa­iah Ra­jah for six and Kirstan Kallicha­ran for 15.

Team B was in trou­ble at 43 for three when Sim­mons and Joshua Da Sil­va met at the crease. Both men put on 71 runs to­geth­er to get the in­nings back on track. The West In­dies wick­et-keep­er stroked 26 runs from 61 balls hit­ting four fours while at the crease. At the oth­er end, Sim­mons was an­chored to the crease build­ing a much-need­ed part­ner­ship for his side.

When Da Sil­va was trapped LBW by Ja­son Mo­hammed, Chrys­t­ian Thur­ton joined Sim­mons. Both men put on 35 runs be­fore Sim­mons him­self was re­moved by Mo­hammed. He scored 68 runs from 177 balls hit­ting sev­en fours dur­ing his time bat­ting.

Chrys­t­ian Thur­ton would greet Im­ran Khan at the wick­et and both men would steady the ship putting on an un­bro­ken stand of 74 runs by the time rain stopped play in the fi­nal hour of the day. Khan is not out on 44 runs hav­ing hit five fours while Thur­ton is with him on 39 runs hav­ing struck four fours.

Mo­hammed has so far tak­en two for 27 while Uth­man Muham­mad has tak­en two for 17. Play will start at 9:30am to­day to make up for lost time.

Brief Scores

T&T Team A: 223/5 (75 ov). K Sim­mons 68, I Khan 44 not out, C. Thur­ton 39 not out; J Mo­hammed 2-27, U Muham­mad 2-17.