CHARLOTTE AMALIE, St Thomas, (CMC) - Repeat Carib Beer Cup champions Barbados completed a comprehensive innings and 48 runs victory over Leeward Islands well inside three days in their sixth round match of the Carib Beer 2004 Cricket Series at Addelita Cancryn Junior High School yesterday.
Leeward Islands, trailing Barbados by 271 runs on first innings, were bowled out for 223 in their second innings about five minutes past the scheduled tea break despite half-centuries from Tonito Willett and Sylvester Joseph to maintain the visitors’ unblemished record in the Championship.
Willett hit seven fours in the top score of 63 from 163 balls in close to three hours of batting and Joseph smote nine fours in an even 50 from 85 balls in 2-1/2 hours to share 108 for the third wicket that raised hopes among the expectant crowd that Leewards might hold on.
The Barbadians, however, bowled tightly and the Leewards batsmen continued to play loosely and surrendered their wickets meekly. Left-arm medium-fast bowler Pedro Collins led the way with three wickets for 46 runs from 12.2 overs and there were two wickets apiece for Dwayne Smith, Ian Bradshaw and Ryan Hurley.
Barbados head the standings with a maximum 72 points and face Trinidad & Tobago in the final round, starting on Wednesday at Pointe-A-Pierre, looking to become the first team to win all seven preliminary matches, since the Championship shifted to a two-tier system three years ago.
Leewards, who were in a three-way tie with Guyana and Kenya before the match, remain on 16 points and meet Jamaica in the final round at St Elizabeth.
After Leewards continued from their bedtime position of 76 for two, Willett and Joseph defied the Barbadians almost the entire morning period. They mixed sound defence with aggression and hardly looked troubled by the opposition’s bowlers.
The two looked like batting all the way to lunch when Joseph essayed a drive and was caught at first slip to give Collins his 100th wicket in the West Indies first-class championship. He was the only success prior to lunch that arrived with Leewards on 160 for three.
After the interval, the drama unfolded. Three wickets for seven runs in the space of 26 balls set the home team back. Willett was brilliantly caught at forward short leg off Hurley when Antonio Mayers miraculously held a ferocious pull.
Four overs later, Wilden Cornwall was adjudged lbw to Hurley for one swinging across the line of a flatter, faster delivery and, two balls later, Jason Williams was comprehensively beaten and bowled by Ryan Hinds for five to leave Leewards on 167 for six.
Barbados might have expected to wrap things up quickly, but Carl Tuckett and Chaka Hodge slowed them down with a stand of 41 for the seventh wicket. They would have been hoping to extend their side’s innings past tea.
Smith put a spoke in their wheel when he had Tuckett lbw for 42 and, two balls later, had Virgil Browne bowled for a duck as Leewards lost their last four wickets for 15 runs in 40 balls.
BARBADOS 1st innings 432 (S. Campbell 211 not out; W. Cornwall 3-43)