CAVE HILL, Barbados, CMC – A defiant stand between Kavem Hodge and Jomel Warrican followed half-centuries from Kyle Corbin, Chadwick Walton and Shacaya Thomas to prop up Combined Campuses & Colleges’ batting against Barbados in their grudge match here yesterday.
Hodge was not out on 34 and Warrican made 24, sharing 56 for the ninth wicket, as CCC, choosing to bat, were dismissed for 269 in their first innings about 20 minutes past the scheduled close on the rain-marred first day of their third round match in the Regional Four-Day Tournament at the 3Ws Oval.
Corbin hit the top score of 55, Walton supported with a typically free-scoring 54 and Thomas made an aggressive, even 50, but Hodge and Warrican had to rescue the home team when they plunged to 202 for eight just before tea. Left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn was the most successful Barbados bowler with four for 66 from 23 overs, Roston Chase purchased two for 24 from 11 overs of his uncomplicated off-spin, lanky fast bowler Jason Holder snared two for 44 from 15 overs and off-spinner Ashley Nurse grabbed two for 58 from 15 overs. Kraigg Brathwaite was not out on one and Rashidi Boucher was unbeaten on the same score, as the Barbadians reached three without loss from two overs in reply.
Hodge and Warrican spent close 1-¾ hours together to frustrate the Barbadians, after it looked like they would roll over CCC before tea.
The pair emerged from the break and batted sensibly, mixing sound defence with aggression to add respectability to their side’s total, as the Barbadians were hamstrung by a typically easy-paced pitch and a worn ball.
Neither Hodge, a Domincan, nor Warrican, a Barbadian, and both former Young West Indies players and West Indies High Performance Centre grads, offered a semblance of a chance, as they earned CCC a second batting point. It took Holder armed with the second new ball to make the breakthrough, when he had Warrican caught behind, gloving a snorter, although the batsman rubbed his right bicep to suggest he had not gained a touch.
Benn soon brought the innings to a close, when he trapped Kesrick Williams lbw for six, playing defensively forward, earning Barbados all three bowling points. Earlier, Thomas and Corbin endured two stoppages for rain in the morning period to give the CCC a solid base, sharing 76 for the first wicket.
Jamaica-born Thomas reached his 50 from 61 balls with a drive off Benn, but he was unfortunate to have been dismissed from the next delivery to send CCC to lunch on 76 for one.
Thomas drove Benn powerfully into the body of silly point fielder Rashidi Boucher and the ball ricocheted in the air to be caught at extra cover by Barbados captain Kraigg Brathwaite.
After the interval, CCC suffered an early setback in the first over, when left-hander Raymon Reifer, another grad of the HPC, was lbw for two playing back and across to a delivery from Nurse, leaving CCC 79 for two.
But Corbin took control and hastened to his 50 from 84 balls, when he pulled a short ball from Holder to the deep backward square leg for his fourth four which also brought up a 50 partnership for the third-wicket from just 38 balls, with the typically free-scoring Walton. Just when it appeared he was getting into the thick of things, he was caught at deep backward square leg from a miscued hook at another short delivery from Holder.
Veteran Floyd Reifer came to the crease and spent 17 minutes before Nurse trapped him lbw for one, playing forward and across a well-pitched delivery, leaving CCC 143 for four.
CCC captain Steven Jacobs, the former Guyana off-spin bowling all-rounder, joined Walton and consolidated for the home team, putting on an even 50 for the fifth wicket.
Walton reached his 50 from 75 balls with a square drive off Chase for a deuce before he was caught at mid-wicket off Benn from a miscued flick, triggering a slide that saw CCC crash to 204 for eight at tea.
Jacobs was caught behind for 22 playing defensively forward to Chase in the next over, Akeem Dewar was caught at slip for one also playing defensively forward to Chase two overs later, and Ryan Austin earned CCC one batting point before he was bowled for four by Benn three overs later.Barbados, who hold a 4-3 edge in this head-to-head battle, are fourth on 19 points and CCC are bottom of the seven-team table on four points.
The Barbadians have lost three of the four matches they have contested at the Three Ws Oval – only breaking the sequence of losing at this venue last year with a resounding innings and 185-run victory.
