Hurley, Antoine put Preysal in command

CLICO Preysal were in a commanding position at the end of the first day of their Carib National Cricket League Division One matchup against Transbrokerage Couva Sports at the Inshan Ali Park, Preysal yesterday. Responding to Preysal’s first innings score of 270, the visitors were tottering at 114 runs for eight wickets with ex-West Indies allrounder, Barbadian Ryan Hurley, returning figures of four wickets for 35 runs while retired national fast bowler Eugene Antoine took three for 32. Andy Jackson hit a typical swashbuckling innings of 95 for Preysal while another national player Shazam Babwah contributed 47, Aaron Ragoonath made 38 and Hollister Pajotte made an unbeaten 34.

Meanwhile, reigning champions Ceramic Merryboys were able to muster 224 runs for nine wickets at the close of play against Alescon Comet at the Diego Martin Recreation Grounds. Former national youth team all-rounder Richard Kelly topscored for Merryboys with an even 50 while West Indies Under-19 batsman Lendl Simmons chipped in with 41, Mario Belcon scored 34, ex-TT strokemaker Denis Rampersad hit 34 and current TT middle-order batsman Aneil Kanhai contributed 30. Current West Indies Players Association (WIPA) president Dinanath Ramnarine showed that he has lost little of his touch as he grabbed four wickets for 80 runs with his leg-breaks while another former TT and Windies player Suruj Ragoonath took two for 26 and Guyanese pacer Reon Griffith returned two for 36.

And national left-arm spinners Dave “Tadpole” Mohammed and Davindra Krishna stole the spotlight in the pulsating clash between Tile It Central Sports and PowerGen at the Presentation College, Chaguanas Grounds. Mohammed claimed figures of six for 9 while fellow TT player Sherwin Ganga took two for 41 as Central were bundled out for 148, despite a knock of 51 from Satish Naidoo. But the PowerGen batsmen were equally clueless against spin, as they were restricted to 139 at their turn at the crease, with Krishna capturing eight for 59 and Guyanese off-spinner Lennox Cush two for 21. Ex-national batsman Denzil James led the way for PowerGen with 44 and national youth team player Jason Mohammed added 32. And tournament leaders FCB Clarke Road closed yesterday’s play on 151 runs for three wickets, with national and WI U-19 opener Tishan Maraj scoring 74, in reply to Queen’s Park first innings tally of 156 at Wilson Road, Penal. Veteran offspinner Mukesh Persad took 6/63 and national player Kenton Thompson 4/36 for Clarke Road. Action today from starts at 10 am.