TT hopes dashed at Guaracara Park

Trinidad and Tobago opened their bid for the 2004 Carib Beer Series regional cricket title with a first innings win over the Leeward Islands on the fourth and final day of an intriguing match at Guaracara Park, Pointe-a-Pierre yesterday.

SCORES: Trinidad and Tobago 335 & 255 vs Leewards 324 & 58/3. The match was called off at 4pm with the Leewards 58 for three wickets in pursuit of 267 runs for victory. The Islanders were set a winning target off 267 runs in a minimum 47 overs but after the fall of vice-captain Alex Adams to the first ball of the innings, they closed up shop after 22 overs. For a while in late afternoon TT must have harboured hopes of a victory when the Leewards lost Shane Jeffers, 21, and Sylvester Joseph, nine. However Tonito Willett on 10 and Wilden Cornwall, undefeated on 14 took the Leewards to the close.

Earlier, the home team resumed on the overnight position of 122 for four and batsmen Ricardo Powell and Tishan Maraj guided them to safety, adding 75 runs for the fifth wicket. Powell, playing his first match for his adopted homeland scored a defiant 77 that came in 127 minutes off 91 balls with six fours and surprisingly no sixes. Both he and the impressive Maraj (31) fell with the score at 192 and from then on the lower order defied everything the Leewards threw at then to reach 255 all out. Virgil Browne grabbed two for 84 to end with 10 wickets for the match and was fittingly named “Man of the Match” by former Test spinner Raphick Jumadeen.

For the first innings win Trinidad and Tobago got six points while the Leewards came away with three. Manager of the Trinidad and Tobago team Omar Khan said after the match: “I am happy with the performance of the boys. They showed that they can fight and were rewarded with the six points. A maximum 12 points would have been ideal to start with but we are still happy with the six points. “The next two matches are against the West Indies ‘B’ at Balmain this weekend and Kenya in Tobago and we are going to go all out for full points in those games,” Khan said. “If we can get maximum points in those two matches it will set us up nicely for the rest of the tournament,” he said.