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Day 3: Almost there: Rain, Simmons make Barbados wait

An emphatic Barbados victory, their fourth in as many matches, appeared imminent at lunch-time yesterday afternoon.

Trinidad and Tobago, the cream of their batting gone, had not yet wiped off a big first innings deficit of 162, their most prolific batsman this season had just been removed, and only four wickets including one specialist batsman - remained to carry their challenge.

Hardly anyone would not have predicted a win inside three days. But a combination of rain, dogged batting, strange field placings with the No. 11 batsman in, and Phil Simmons' best innings for some time ensured that Barbados would have to return to Kensington Oval this morning.

Simmons, a big, powerful right-hander who has been somewhat inconsistent this season, hit an unbeaten 82.

Resistance

His first 50 came in three hours off 124 balls and the last 32 in 33 balls when he was batting with the last man.

As a result, Trinidad and Tobago, 144 for six at lunch, rallied to 267 before their resistance ended at 4:45 p.m.

It left Barbados a target of 106 and, when bad light ended play prematurely with 10 overs left, Sherwin Campbell and Adrian Griffith had erased 25 of them.

Roland Holder's team should have no problems in getting the other 81 today to confirm their No. 1 position in the preliminaries, a placing that will give them home advantage and a semifinal match-up against the lowest of the qualifiers.

As was the case last Sunday when Barbados beat Guyana, left-arm spinner Winston Reid and impressive new fast bowler Corey Collymore were the ones who made the inroads.

Firm grip

Reid struck twice in the day's third over, Collymore shattered the stumps twice and both bowlers finished with four wickets.

Barbados always held a firm grip on proceedings, but credit must go to Trinidad and Tobago, whose last three wickets frustrated the home team for more than two hours in adding 96 runs.

When Denis Rampersad, the young, consistent batsman edged a drive off Collymore and was out for 42 five minutes before lunch, it was the fourth wicket for Barbados in the morning session, and only Simmons, wicket-keeper David Williams and three fast bowlers were in their way.

The other victims before lunch were opener Suruj Ragoonath and Lincoln Roberts, both lbw to Reid in the space of three balls, and Richard Smith, lbw to a break-back from Collymore after an hour's batting.

Two of those were key wickets. Ragoonath, unbeaten on 50 at the start, added only two before playing across the line, while Roberts, topscorer in the first innings, was a clear lbw victim on the back foot.

After rain delayed the resumption after lunch by half-hour, Williams made just 10, but he spent nearly an hour with Simmons before Collymore bowled him with a beauty of a ball that cut back sharply on pitching.

Collymore had just replaced the luckless Thompson, who for the fourth time this season, claimed a wicket with a no-ball.

It was a horror period for the burly fast bowler who overstepped the front crease 12 times in two overs before he was taken off in mid-afternoon and never brought back again.

Bishop joined Simmons and was hardly drawn into anything rash in a very quiet period in which the pair carefully compiled 63 for the eighth wicket in an hour-and-a-half.

The Trinidad and Tobago captain, always known for his ability to present a straight, broad bat, was never troubled in an innings of 29.

It took a delivery from Collymore that again cut back appreciably to remove him. The ball kept a bit low and by the time Bishop got his bat down, it had already cannoned into his pad.

Mervyn Dillon quickly edged a big drive into the gloves of wicket-keeper Courtney Browne – his 22nd dismissal of a flawless season behind the stumps – but Barbados' frustration was not yet over.

Simmons made the most of an ultra-defensive field that seemed to have unsettled Collymore.

The plan was to try to remove No. 11 Marlon Black, who had failed to score a run this season.

Black, however, blocked 19 balls before Griffith's diving effort at silly-point snapped him up. By then Simmons, who was demoted two notches down the order, had opened his muscular shoulders to find the boundary six times.

While his first 50 was made with the type of caution seldom seen from the experienced player, he was the Simmons of old when Black partnered him, and his unbeaten 82 off 157 was made in 3-1/2 hours and included 12 fours.

The dismissal of his partner left Simmons 76 runs short of Desmond Haynes' all-time record for the highest aggregate of runs in regional first-class cricket.

Day 4: Four not out - Bajans beat Trinis to keep record intact

Roland Holder says a huge outpouring of support has been a major reason for Barbados' 100 per cent winning record in the 1999 Busta Cup.

``Everybody in the team has been giving me their whole-hearted support and suggestions have come from everyone whatever the situation,'' the Barbados captain told NATIONSPORT after his team completed a comfortable eight-wicket victory over Trinidad and Tobago yesterday.

The win, their fourth in as many matches, carried them to an unsurpassable 64 points and guarantees them a semifinal berth against the lowest of the qualifiers on home soil from February 19-22.

It took them just under an hour-and-three-quarters to reach their straightforward target of 106 and immediately after they achieved it, they joined Trinidad and Tobago in greeting about 300 schoolchildren in front of the Garfield Sobers Pavilion.

Barbados lost Sherwin Campbell for 30 and Ricky Hoyte for 19 with one run required, but left-handed opener Adrian Griffith remained unbeaten on 50, his third half-century of the tournament, while Holder had the privilege of hitting the winnings runs, a swept boundary from the only ball he faced.

``We have been spending a lot of time together, doing things together. Team spirit is high. It has been high from the word go,'' Holder said, adding that an internal incentive scheme had also played its part.

``It's been working quite well for us, not that the guys need incentives to do well, but we are just trying to find little things to keep the spark going.''

Incentives are given to team members who score centuries or capture five wickets in an innings.

This is Holder's second stint as captain, and by far the most successful of the four seasons he has been in charge. In his tenure from 1992 to 1994, Barbados never won the championship but it was, he said, an experience that put him in good stead.

``As you get older, you mature, you learn more. I've certainly learned a lot more about captaincy and about dealing with people,'' he said.

``There is still a lot more to be learnt, but it has made me a wiser person in terms of cricket and lots of other things.''

Yesterday, Barbados, resuming on 25 without loss, were moving along without any problems before first innings century-maker Campbell edged an attempted cut to slip off occasional off-spinner Denis Rampersad with the total on 63. It took Campbell's aggregate for the season to 405 runs, the most by any batsman.

Left-handers Hoyte and Griffith appeared to be taking Barbados to victory without further loss before Hoyte, pushing forward to Mukesh Persad's off-spin, was caught at slip. Griffith's unbeaten 50 off 95 balls included five fours.

Barbados' victory followed those against Windward Islands by 236 runs, Leeward Islands by 10 wickets and Guyana by 16 runs, but Holder said there was still room for improvement.

``We are still making some mistakes. At 28 for six in the first innings, we let them (Trinidad and Tobago) get too many runs. They also got about 50 runs too many in the second innings,'' he said.

``I'm certain that these are things we have to work on as we try to reach our peak for the final.

``We don't want to fall into that feeling of complacency where you figure because you have won some that you are going to win all. We need to keeping working hard and try to cut out some up of the mistakes we are making.''

Barbados are expected to be boosted by the return of West Indies players Philo Wallace and Floyd Reifer for their final preliminary match against Jamaica starting Friday at Kensington Oval.