Nurse doctors fourth straight for Bajans

BRIDGETOWN: Fast bowler Ryan Nurse grabbed a seven-wicket haul against West Indies “B” yesterday to power Barbados to their fourth consecutive victory in the Carib Beer Series regional tournament.

The tournament’s leading team won by 162 runs before lunch on the fourth and final day at the Three Ws Oval at Cave Hill. West Indies “B”, resuming on 94 for three in pursuit of 302 to win, folded for 139 all out in the face of Nurse’s attack. The former West Indies Under-19 pacer, in only his sixth First-Class match, took a career-best seven for 41 off 15 overs to earn match figures of 11 for 60. Danza Hyatt and Patrick Browne stretched their overnight partnership to 30 before Nurse made the initial breakthrough to start the slide. The last seven wickets then tumbled for 27 runs with Nurse collecting six.

The 20-year-old trapped Hyatt leg before for 20 (three fours) at 112 for four and ran through the middle and lower orders. Kenroy Williams (1) also fell leg before, while Browne (16) edged a cut through to wicket-keeper Courtney Browne. Ryan Austin fell for a duck, prodding a catch to silly mid-off. Left-hander Austin Richards Jr. (2) drove a catch to cover and Jason Bennett (9) was bowled trying a swipe to leg. Nurse, who claimed his first victim on Sunday, missed out on an eight-wicket haul when left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn wrapped up the match by having Dwight Washington (5) caught on the long-off boundary. “I just put the ball in the right areas and let the batsmen make the mistakes,” said Nurse after taking the “Man of the Match” award.

Barbados now leads the Carib Beer series competition table with a maximum 48 points from four matches, 12 ahead of second-place Trinidad and Tobago. Barbados next host Kenya at Windward Cricket Club starting next Friday. The West Indies “B”, with 24 points, face Jamaica at the Stanford Airport Ground in Antigua in their fifth-round encounter.