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Day 1: Bright start for Bajans

Haydn Gill

Windward Islands 152, Barbados 82-3

The crowd might just have been a gathering and the atmosphere very low-key, but host country Barbados still made a satisfying start to the Nortel Networks West Indies Youth Cricket Championship yesterday.

They had the big advantage of winning the toss in conditions that were ideally suited to fast bowlers, and by tea the Windward Islands had been dismissed for yet another modest total at this level.

By the close, Barbados had wiped off half of the runs and needed another 71 runs for first innings lead.

They, however, would have been disappointed that they lost a third wicket in the closing stages after a half-century stand between their two most experienced batsmen.

The rain that had been around for the last few days delayed the start by 35 minutes and gave the pitch the generous bounce which was especially well exploited by debutant fast bowler Antonio Thomas.

The 16-year-old St. Lucy schoolboy did the early damage, collecting three of the first four wickets in a lively burst of eight overs before lunch.

He yorked the Windwards’ most heralded batsman, Devon Smith, and claimed another victim to a catch at short-leg the ball after rattling the left-handed Michael Nerverson with a blow to the helmet.

It meant that four wickets were down in the first hour, but the Windwards fought back through a fifth-wicket partnership of 62 between captain Greg Francois and the dogged Shaun Pierre that frustrated Barbados for an hour and 20 minutes.

When the stand was broken just after 2 p.m., Jedson Yarde and Callitos Lopez sliced through the lower order. The last six wickets fell for 56 with most of the batsmen gifting their wickets.

Bowled behind his back

Yarde, the last of Barbados’ six bowlers, took four for 27 from 11.4 overs in which he flighted the ball encouragingly.

He broke the most productive partnership of the innings by bowling Francois behind his back for 40 off 78 balls.

The left-arm wrist spinner, who is playing in his third championship, picked up his second wicket with a short ball that was cut to backward point, and his other two victims succumbed to big swings.

Lopez added to his early wicket of Libert Seriuex, who was lbw to a slower ball, by despatching former West Indies Under-15 selectee Camilus Alexander and the solid Pierre.

Pierre, a 17-year-old St. Lucian, was entrenched for 3-1/4 hours before Lopez produced a ball that bounced more than usual. It took the top portion of the bat and resulted in a comfortable catch to gully.

Having come in at No. 3, Pierre did well before he was second-last out after facing 148 balls against an attack that featured three spinners.

Left-arm finger spinner Sulieman Benn and off-spinner Ryan Austin were tidy without posing any problems.

Barbados lost big Jason Parris, lbw on the back foot, and Vonrick Nurse to a fine diving catch at gully, both wickets going to left-arm medium-pacer Kenroy Peters before the total reached 30.

Captain Ryan Hinds and Jason Haynes consolidated by adding 51, although Hinds, the only Barbados player with a senior team cap, would have been back in the pavilion had the Windwards not dropped two chances on the deep backward square-leg boundary off Alexander, a leg-spinner who has played for the Grenada senior team.

Hinds resumes this morning on 36. He would have had fellow left-hander Haynes with him, had the former Harrison College schoolboy not played over a ball from Alexander.

Day 2: Caught off-Yarde

Haydn Gill

Windwards (152 & 83) lost to Barbados (230 and 6-0) by 10 wickets.

You Had to see it to believe it.

The Windward Islands have been known to roll over without much resistance, but their capitulation against Barbados yesterday was as swift, dramatic and as embarrassing as they come.

Jedson Yarde, impressively delivering left-arm wrist spin, made fools out of batsmen by capturing seven wickets in the twinkling of an eye on the scheduled second day of their opening round Nortel Networks Youth Championships cricket match.

When the players returned to the field after the tea break, Barbados held a marginal advantage, the Windwards having reached 25 for one in their second innings and needing a further 53 runs to wipe of their first innings deficit.

What followed was simply unimaginable; Windwards manager Raphael Croney described it as ``atrocious''.

Batsmen lacking in technique and seemingly not willing to show any tenacity, gifted their wickets against good, but hardly unplayable spin bowling from the 17-year-old Foundation schoolboy.

The last seven wickets went down for just 14 runs in a miserable half-hour for the Windwards.

Bemused and bewildered, they folded in just 32.4 overs and left Barbados the mere formality of scoring six runs to complete an emphatic victory with a day to spare.

``We were committed and played with a purpose,'' manager Darnley Boxill said of his successful Barbados team.

``The team played well. They were confident and the result was a fitting one. This victory will be a good catalyst for them for the rest of the series.''

Yarde's final figures were 12.4-1-25-7, the best by a Barbadian since Ryan Hurley's eight-wicket haul against Guyana in 1994.

The haul slightly overshadowed the fine century from captain Ryan Hinds that ensured Barbados gained a useful first innings lead.

The left-handed Hinds almost single-handedly carried the fight for the hosts until Sulieman Benn joined him just before lunch when the Windwards were staging a bit of a fightback.

When Benn came out, Barbados were 141 for seven, the innings set back by the quick dismissals of Ryan Austin, Kurt Wilkinson, Damien Maynard and Callitos Lopez.

They fell in the space of 25 runs against the leg-spin of Camilus Alexander and the left-arm medium-pace of Kenroy Peters, the pair operating exclusively in the pre-lunch session.

By then, Hinds was playing commandingly, especially when he was driving through the off-side on the front foot.

That shot brought him most of his 11 fours in an innings of 124 that lasted a shade under 4 1/2 hours.

His stand with Benn (31) for the eighth wicket was worth a precious 83 runs, but should have been broken just after lunch when Hinds was on 86.

In trying to get after Alexander, Hinds skied the ball to cover where Michael Nerverson spilled the most straightforward of chances.

It was Hinds' third let-off, which allowed him to complete his second century at this level – his first was against the same opponents two years ago – and it probably left the Windwards somewhat dejected.

They would have been devastated by the end of the day.

They lost their first wicket to Antonio Thomas in the fourth over when Kidion Thomas gloved a good one to third slip.

Devon Smith, a little, neat left-hander with Busta Cup experience, stroked a few boundaries before he was bowled attempting to cut off-spinner Ryan Austin five minutes after tea.

Then came Yarde who took the rest of the wickets with the exception of one.

Apart from Smith, Sharm Pierre, Libert Sireux and captain Greg Francois, no batsman survived as many as 10 balls.