Je­lani Beck­les

A well con­struct­ed in­nings from the ex­pe­ri­enced Ja­son Mo­hammed yes­ter­day on day two, kept T&T in the match against the Wind­ward Is­lands in the West In­dies Crick­et Board Pro­fes­sion­al Crick­et League at the Na­tion­al Crick­et Cen­tre in Cou­va.

Mo­hammed, who led T&T to the Nagi­co Su­per50 ti­tle ear­li­er this year, end­ed on an un­beat­en 79 to guide T&T to 228/4 at the close in re­sponse to the Wind­wards first in­nings score of 350. Mo­hammed's knock came off 116 balls, in­clud­ing 11 fours and one six.

Af­ter Je­re­my Solozano (31), Im­ran Khan (22) and Kjorn Ot­t­ley (20) were all dis­missed af­ter get­ting starts, T&T was 79/3 and in need of a part­ner­ship. Mo­hammed was watch­ful at the start, suc­cess­ful­ly see­ing through some tight bowl­ing from spin bowler Shane Shilling­ford and left-arm medi­um pac­er De­lorn John­son.

The right-han­der was how­ev­er quick to pun­ish the bowlers es­pe­cial­ly through the off side. While Mo­hammed looked for runs, left-hand­ed Yan­nic Cari­ah was hap­py to play the sup­port­ing role.

Cari­ah broke the shack­les just be­fore tea when he pulled a short ball for four off John­son to move in­to dou­ble fig­ures.

At the tea in­ter­val T&T pro­gressed to 106/3 with Mo­hammed on 19 and Cari­ah on 12.

Af­ter a watch­ful pe­ri­od at the start of the fi­nal ses­sion, Mo­hammed and Cari­ah start­ed to grow in con­fi­dence. Cari­ah struck medi­um pace bowler Ken­roy Pe­ters for two overs in one over, while Mo­hammed con­tin­ued to look strong through the off side.

The pair al­so rode their luck, as Mo­hammed was dropped on 25 at mid wick­et and Cari­ah was put down at first slip.

Cari­ah's luck even­tu­al­ly ran out when he was 40. Shilling­ford, bowl­ing from the pavil­ion end trapped him leg be­fore to leave T&T on 157/4 end­ing the 78-run part­ner­ship.

Kieron Pol­lard, play­ing in his first match for T&T since the Nagi­co Su­per50, joined Mo­hammed.

An un­bro­ken 71-run stand be­tween the pair avoid­ed a mid­dle or­der col­lapse as the pair took T&T to stumps with­out any fur­ther dam­age.

T&T is hop­ing that Pol­lard, who is un­beat­en on 27, and Mo­hammed can bat long to­day as the home team is one bats­man short. Daniel St Clair is not ex­pect­ed to play for the re­main­der of the match due to a kid­ney in­fec­tion.

Ear­li­er, two wick­ets each from Khan and Rayad Em­rit dis­missed Wind­ward Is­lands quick­ly in the first ses­sion.

Re­sum­ing on 304/6 in the first in­nings, Wind­wards Is­lands was bowled out for 350, on­ly adding 46 runs. Khan end­ed with 6/127 from 37.3 overs, while Romel Cur­ren­cy could on­ly add sev­en to his overnight 52.

At Warn­er Park, Bar­ba­dos is in a strong po­si­tion against the Lee­ward Is­lands, get­ting to 268/6 in re­sponse to the Lee­ward Is­lands first in­nings score of 215.

At Guyana Na­tion­al Sta­di­um, Ja­maica bowled out Guyana for 236 to earn a 22-run lead on first in­nings. Ja­maica then closed on 22/1 in the sec­ond in­nings.

Score­board

T&T vs WIND­WARDS

Wind­wards 1st in­nings

De­von Smith lbw M Richards 70

T Theophile c A Ho­sein b I Khan 39

M Bas­combe lbw I Khan 65

C Em­manuel c K Pol­lard b I Khan 20

D Polius c S Kat­wa­roo b Y Cari­ah 31

R Cur­ren­cy c S Kat­wa­roo b R Em­rit 59

Den­nis Smith lbw I Khan 16

S Shilling­ford b I Khan 26

M Matthew not out 7

K Pe­ters c M Richards b R Em­rit 5

D John­son c J Solozano b I Khan 1

Ex­tras 3b 6lb 2w 11

To­tal 350 all out

Fall of Wk­ts: 99, 128, 187, 204, 255, 294, 331, 339, 344, 350

Bowl­ing: M Richards 22-7-59-1, R Em­rit 21-5-52-2, D St Clair 5-1-15-0, I Khan 37.3-3-127-6, K Pol­lard 2-1-4-0, J Mo­hammed 5-1-22-0, A Ho­sein 11-0-37-0, Y Cari­ah 8-1-25-1

T&T 1st in­nings

J Solozano lbw K Pe­ters 31

I Khan c sub (A Bobb) b K Pe­ters 22

K Ot­t­ley c Den­nis Smith b D John­son 20

Y Cari­ah lbw S Shilling­ford 40

J Mo­hammed not out 79

K Pol­lard not out 27

Ex­tras 5b 2lb 1w 1nb 9

To­tal 228/4

Fall of Wk­ts: 53, 62, 79, 157

Still To Bat: A Ho­sein, S Kat­wa­roo, M Richards, R Em­rit, D St Clair

Bowl­ing: D John­son 15-2-67-1, M Matthew 13-4-28-0, K Pe­ters 11-3-23-2, S Shilling­ford 18-3-77-1, D Polius 7-2-26-0

OTH­ER SCORES

Lee­ward Is­lands vs Bar­ba­dos

At Warn­er Park: Lee­ward Is­lands 215 (Lyn­del Richard­son 51, Rah­keem Corn­wall 48, Jomel War­ri­can 8/88) vs Bar­ba­dos 268/6 (Kyle Corbin 75, Kevin Stoute 63, Shane Dowrich 65 not out, Corn­wall 3/57)

Ja­maica vs Guyana

At Guyana Na­tion­al Sta­di­um: Ja­maica 258 (Chad­wick Wal­ton 58, Jer­maine Black­wood 58, John Camp­bell 48, Veerasam­my Per­maul 5/77, De­ven­dra Bishoo 4/62) and 22/1 vs Guyana 236 (Ra­jin­dra Chan­dri­ka 69, Leon John­son 78, Damion Ja­cobs 5/67)