POINTE-A-PIERRE, Trinidad, (CMC) - West Indies fast bowler Fidel Edwards hastened Barbados to a record seventh preliminary win in the Carib Beer 2004 Cricket Series when they crushed Trinidad & Tobago by 246 runs at Guaracara Park, yesterday.
Edwards ended with four wickets for 48 runs from 15 overs as T&T, set a highly improbable, but not impossible target of 393 to win by the repeat Carib Beer Cup champions, were bowled out for 146 in their second innings about half-hour after the lunch interval on the last day.
Edwards, who had removed West Indies captain Brian Lara the previous evening, added the wickets of T&T captain Daren Ganga, all-rounder Dwayne Bravo and last man Marlon Black to help Barbados sweep all the preliminary matches in the West Indies first-class championship, since the expansion to eight teams three years ago.
Barbados ended the preliminary round with the maximum 84 points and now await the outcome of the other matches in the final preliminary round to determine their opponents in one of the two semifinals, starting on Thursday at Kensington Oval.
After Trinidad & Tobago resumed on 60 for four, any hopes of at least playing to a draw were dashed in the first over of the day when Edwards had Ganga adjudged lbw for 16 and then bowled Bravo with a beauty to put his team firmly on the path to victory.
Dave Mohammed offered little resistance and was bowled all over the place by Ryan Hinds for seven and, to add insult to injury, Martin Nurse had Amit Jaggernauth caught behind in his only over and first bowl in first-class cricket.
T&T went to lunch on 119 for eight and the Barbadians wasted little time after the interval in bringing an end to the match. Dwayne Smith had Reyad Emrit caught close to the wicket for one and Edwards had Black caught behind for 16 to leave Gibran Mohammed not out on 39.
The result could condemn T&T, who entered the match third on 40 points, to “also-ran” status, since Guyana appeared set for a victory over Kenya in Georgetown that would also take them to 40 points, but give them a place under the tie-break rules.
Barbados captain Courtney Browne was named man-of-the-match.
BARBADOS 1st innings 285 (C. Browne 98; A. Jaggernauth 3-75)