KINGSTON, Jamaica, (CMC) - Spin, the eternal bane of Barbados’ batsmen, returned to haunt them when Ryan Cunningham and Gareth Breese shared seven wickets to upstage the front-runners in their key third round match of the Carib Beer 2004 Cricket Series against Jamaica at Sabina Park yesterday.
Left-arm spinner Cunningham was the most successful Jamaica bowler with four wickets for 49 runs from 24 overs and off-spinner Breese took three for 52 in 27 overs to restrict the double-crown holders to a modest 198.
In five overs before stumps were drawn on the opening day, Jamaica reached nine without loss.
On a day in which fortunes shifted back and forth, Jamaica gained their advantage in the second period when Cunningham and skipper Breese broke the backbone of Barbados’ batting.
The Barbadians, choosing to bat, inched their way to 54 for one at lunch, but fell away after the interval, as most of the batsmen were guilty of careless strokes.
Among them was top-scorer Ryan Hinds, who batted solidly for 56 before giving a catch to midwicket 20 minutes before tea. The left-hander, who was dropped by Cunningham on 37, batted for 2-1/2 hours, faced 125 balls and struck half-dozen boundaries.
He and opening batsman Sherwin Campbell slowly added 46 for the second wicket before Campbell was caught on the second attempt by ’keeper Keith Hibbert for 26.
It ended a dogged innings in which the former West Indies vice-captain laboured for two hours, 40 minutes and faced 112 balls.
Apart from Hinds and Campbell, Barbados also lost the wickets of in-form Floyd Reifer, Shawn Graham and captain Courtney Browne in the afternoon period.
Reifer made only three before Cunningham bowled him as he offered no stroke, Graham edged a cut to the ’keeper, and Browne’s top-edged sweep gave Hibbert the fourth of five dismissals in the innings.
After Barbados slipped to 114 for six about 20 minutes before the tea break, the innings was revived by two useful partnerships in which Antonio Mayers was involved.
Mayers, who made a fluent 47 that included four boundaries in two hours batting, first added 52 for the seventh wicket with Sulieman Benn, who made 24.
After their stand was broken, Ryan Nurse helped add a further 25 before part-time off-spinner Tamar Lambert took the last two wickets to wrap up the innings.
Barbados, who lead the standings with a maximum 24 points, are fielding an unchanged team from the side that defeated Windward Islands by an innings and 90 runs in the previous round, while Jamaica made three changes to the team that defeated Guyana by six wickets.
Maurice Kepple, Jerome Taylor and Lorenzo Ingram took the places of the injured Donovon Pagon, Nehemiah Perry and Evon McInnis.
BARBADOS 1st innings
S. Campbell c wkpr Hibbert b Cunningham 26
M. Nurse c wkpr Hibbert b Taylor 14
R. Hinds c Ingram b Breese 56
F. Reifer b Cunningham 3
S. Graham c wkpr Hibbert b Cunningham 1
C. Browne c wkpr Hibbert b Breese 1
A. Mayers c Richardson b Cunningham 47
S. Benn c Taylor b Breese 24
R. Nurse c Parchment b Lambert 11
T. Best stp. Hibbert b Lambert 7
P. Collins not out 0
Extras: (lb-5, nb-3) 8
Total: (all out) 198
Fall of wickets: 1-26, 2-72, 3-88, 4-90, 5-99, 6-114, 7-166, 8-191, 9-193.
Bowling: Taylor 9-3-25-1 (nb-2), Richardson 8-2-22-0, Bernard 11-3-29-0,