Spinners give TT victory scent

Led by four wickets from off-spinner Amit Jaggernauth, three from left-arm spinner Dave “Tadpole” Mohammed, two (on Friday) from Richard Kelly and one from Mervyn Dillon, as well as alert fielding, restricted the visitors to 131 in their first innings.

With a first innings advantage of 124, the TT lads closed the day’s play on 171 for three, an overall lead of 295 with two days remaining.

Captain Daren Ganga is unbeaten on 54 and first innings centurion Jason Mohammed has so far scored 13, following a polished 65 from opener Lendl Simmons.

In a situation similar to their final round in the Carib Beer Cricket Series contest against Barbados two months ago, the hosts used a different opening pair in as many innings, with West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo and Simmons facing the new ball yesterday when the Windwards capitulated after resuming on 37 for four overnight. But it hardly made a difference to the struggling fortunes of opening position in the TT batting lineup as Bravo, terribly short of form, wasted a promising start by driving leg-spinner Rawl Lewis directly to Devon Smith at point.

Simmons was assertive from the start, using his feet nicely to dispatch numerous loose balls from Lewis and left-arm spinner Dennis George, as he posted his second half-century of the season, 65, in two-and-a-half hours. But, in the midst of an entertaining 89-run second wicket stand with Ganga for the second wicket, the West Indies “A” team opener needlessly lofted a Lewis delivery to George at long off.

Ganga’s brother Sherwin again flattered to deceive as he was bowled behind his back for ten, sweeping at off-spinner Liam Sebastien’s first delivery. However Jason Mohammed joined his captain to ensure there would be no middle-order collapse before the close.

The 165-minute knock of Daren Ganga, which featured cheeky quick singles, could have ended at 30 but George embarrassingly allowed a skied drive at long off to slip through his hands, hit his forehead before rolling across the boundary mark, thus denying Lewis his third wicket.

Resuming the day’s play in trouble on 37 for four, the overnight pair of George and Alvin La Feuille lasted for nearly an hour before both were removed in successive deliveries. La Feuille hit Dave Mohammed to Jaggernauth at mid-off while Dillon forced George to essay a catch to Bravo at square leg. Darren Sammy and fellow all-rounder Sebastien hung around for over an hour in an uninspiring seventh-wicket partnership of 46 before Jaggernauth, bowling from wide off the crease, got the stocky left-hander Sebastien to edge to Bravo at slip.

In tandem with Dave Mohammed, Jaggernauth, operating from the northern end, sliced through the tail, as he gratefully accepted a return catch from Sammy for 27; had Lewis stumped for a quick-fire 16, the Windwards captain ended on all fours attempting to regain his ground; and earned a bat-pad catch off Jean Paul for a second-ball duck.

The match continues today.