Bajans thrash TT by 246 runs

Trinidad and Tobago were beaten by Barbados yesterday by a whopping 246 runs to finish their 2004 Carib Beer Series regional cricket campaign. They accumulated 40 points which were not enough to get them into the second round of the contest. Resuming on the overnight position of 60 for four wickets in pursuit of an improbable 393 runs for victory on the final day, the home team was shot out for 146 runs. It was one of their largest margins of defeat in the regional cricket. West Indies fast bowler Fidel Edwards grabbed four wickets for 48 runs to condemn TT to yet another regional failure.

Any hopes TT had of salvaging anything out of the match went with the very first delivery of the day as skipper Daren Ganga fell leg before wicket to Edwards for 16. In the same over Dwayne Bravo was yorked without scoring. The hosts were 60 for six at that early stage and in danger of not making even 100 runs. But Dave Mohammed joined the obdurate wicket keeper Gibran Mohammed and they took the score to 84 before the left-arm spinner was bowled by Ryan Hinds for seven to leave TT in deeper trouble. Amit Jaggernauth came out and helped Mohammed take the score pass 100 runs but 14 runs later he was out for nine. Mohammed, in the meantime, was defending like his life depended on it and in the process played way beyond his experience. His partner Rayad Emrit was then out to Dwayne Smith letting in big burly fast bowler Marlon Black who was involved in a last wicket stand of 17 runs.

Black scored 16 of them and was the last man out to Edwards completing yet another disappointing TT campaign in regional cricket. Mohammed was left unbeaten on 39. Barbadian skipper Courtney Browne was named “Man-of-the-Match”. National team manager Omar Khan said he was very disappointed with the result. “We lost the plot in the first innings where we should have gotten first innings points. I think after that our players lost their way and this is the result. We need to immediately look into where we fell short in order to prevent it happening in the future again,” Khan said.