KINGSTOWN, St Vincent, CMC – Captain Rawl Lewis lashed an unbeaten half-century for the Windwards Islands to secure a draw against Trinidad and Tobago yesterday, a result that killed the remote chance both teams had of capturing the 2009 WICB Regional Four-day championship title.
Set 273 runs to win, the Windwards reached 165 for seven when the game was called off at 5:12 pm local time at the Arnos Vale Ground with Lewis not out on 66.
T&T, with six first-innings points from the game, climbed to 51 points and the Windwards moved up to 63 but neither side can now overhaul runaway leaders Jamaica, who moved up to 90 on Tuesday with their draw against Combined Campuses & Colleges.
T&T and the Windwards can both only achieve a maximum of 87 points.
The Windwards were set their target in two sessions after restricting T&T to 168 all out in their second innings.
Pressing to complete a pair of wins over the Windwards in the new extended home-and-away season, Trinidad and Tobago batted through the entire morning session after resuming on 112 for six.
They had quickly lost Ravi Rampaul and slipped to 119 for seven when the fast bowler edged a straightforward catch to wicket-keeper Andre Fletcher, driving at pacer Deighton Butler.
Amit Jaggernauth joined Gibran Mohammed and the eighth-wicket pair added 38 runs before pacer Nelon Pascal found his rhythm and knocked over the last three batsmen.
Mohammed (20) and Jaggernauth, who top-scored with 28, edged catches to Fletcher and first-slip fielder Johnson Charles respectively.
Pascal then wrapped up the innings moments before the scheduled lunch break when Magnum Nanan, trying to cut, was caught at point for one.
After posting figures of two for 41 from 10 overs on Monday’s third day, Pascal went on to record his best returns for the season, five for 57 off 16.2 overs.
Medium pacer Kenroy Peters had stifling figures of two for 23 off 16 overs, while Butler (2-41) and off-spinner Shane Shillingford (1-26) claimed the other wickets.
The Windwards began their response to the target after the lunch break and in a flash were reeling under a Rampaul attack at 11 for three.
Buoyed by his recall Monday to the West Indies set-up, Rampaul cheaply ripped out frontline batsmen Charles (2), Salvan Browne (1) and Fletcher (2).
Driving at the 24-year-old pacer, Charles was first to go, caught at second slip with just two runs on the board, and Rampaul got leg before wicket verdicts to dislodge both Browne and Fletcher.
Trinidad and Tobago, who lost a seven-game unbeaten label when Jamaica defeated them in the ninth round, were held up by a half-century stand between Donwell Hector and Alston Bobb but went at the home side in the last session looking for victory.
They had a quick breakthrough after the interval when left-arm spinner Nanan bowled the in-form Hector.
The 20-year-old Vincentian, who had scored 99 in the first innings, fell for 42, failing to add to his tea-time score.
Hector faced 99 balls and struck seven boundaries.
Bobb (36) and Lewis frustrated T&T with a 53-run fifth-wicket stand that ended when Rampaul got rid of Bobb at 126 for five.
Nanan (2-39) dislodged Shillingford (0) four runs later but Lewis was resolute for the Windwards and the game was called off when Darren Bravo (1-9) had Butler caught behind for four.
Lewis, the Windwards’ leading scorer this season, smashed three fours and four sixes in a 106-ball innings.
He cracked two sixes off Jaggernauth and also lofted Nanan and Imran Khan for sixes while producing a rousing finish for the home side, their first draw of the season and T&T’s seventh draw.
Rampaul led T&T’s bowling with four for 35 off 10 overs.
Sherwin Ganga, for his pivotal all-round first-innings effort, of 98 and four for 26, was named man of the match.
In the 12th round scheduled to start on Friday, Trinidad and Tobago will be at home to Guyana and the Windward Islands travel to Jamaica.
