With the na­tion’s at­ten­tion on the coro­n­avirus, the T&T Red Force crick­eters tried their ut­most to give their fans some­thing else to think about as they skit­tled out the Wind­wards for 173 in their first in­nings at the end of the sec­ond day of their West In­dies Cham­pi­onship match at the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my in Tarou­ba, San Fer­nan­do on Fri­day.

Af­ter all-rounder Jyd Goolie record­ed his first ton at the First Class lev­el to pro­pel T&T to 409 all out. Pac­er An­der­son Phillip took over to re­move four bats­men for 53 runs to lim­it the vis­i­tors to 173 all out. They lost nine wick­ets be­cause Kaveem Hodge was in­jured and could not take his po­si­tion in the line-up.

Sent in to fol­low-on Wind­wards closed the day on four with­out loss hav­ing to face six overs be­fore the close of play. When they re­sume to­day they would have to wipe out 232 runs be­fore T&T take to the crease to chase a tar­get.

The vet­er­an De­von Smith and plucky wick­et­keep­er Em­man­u­al Stew­art were the on­ly bats­men to show fight as Red Force had them tot­ter­ing on 56 for three ear­ly in their re­sponse. The fact that they spent a day and a half in the blaz­ing sun showed as they looked tired in their ap­proach to their crick­et.

Smith, on the oth­er hand, showed his class at the re­gion­al game, record­ing his 63rd half-cen­tu­ry. He and the busy Stew­art record­ed 62 runs for the fourth wick­et that gave the vis­i­tors hope but when Smith left for 67 off 118 balls with six fours and two six­es, the end was near. Stew­art count­ed 30 runs off 49 balls with four sweet­ly timed bound­aries.

An­der­son who had a six-wick­et haul in the first in­nings of the last game against Bar­ba­dos was good again bowl­ing at pace and ac­cu­ra­cy to fin­ish with 4/53. The pro­lif­ic wick­et-tak­er Im­ran Khan added to his al­ready im­pres­sive bag by fin­ish­ing with 2/6, while Akeal Ho­sein nabbed 2/27.

Ear­li­er, T&T re­sumed on the overnight po­si­tion of 298/5 and de­spite the ear­ly loss of Khan, pushed on to an even­tu­al 409 all out. Khan re­sum­ing on the bed­time score of 80 just didn’t look the part and his de­fence was breached by Pre­ston Mc­Sween for 84. In the end, he faced 136 balls, hit­ting 11 fours. His part­ner­ship with Goolie was worth 160 runs for the sixth wick­et. It fell way short of the record sixth-wick­et part­ner­ship of 223 made by Richard de Souza and Char­lieville Davis in 1967.

Goolie looked pos­i­tive from ball one and was rode some luck as he was dropped in the slips on 93. He made good his for­tune as he pressed on to a maid­en First-Class cen­tu­ry much to the joy of his fam­i­ly who was the on­ly spec­ta­tors at the ground in the ear­ly morn­ing as fans stayed away due to the coro­n­avirus.

Wind­wards through bril­liant bowl­ing by Mc­Sween start­ed well and re­duced T&T to 345 for nine. Goolie was then joined by pac­er An­der­son Phillip who looked very pro­fi­cient with the bat. The two clout­ed 63 runs for the last wick­et. Goolie was the fi­nal wick­et to fall leav­ing for 128 off 206 balls with 16 fours and a six. An­der­son would have felt hard done re­main­ing short of his first half-cen­tu­ry, clos­ing on 36 not out. He faced 31 balls, strik­ing four fours and one six.

SCORES

RED FORCE 409 (Jyd Goolie 128, Im­ran Khan 84, Kyle Hope 54, Ja­son Mo­hammed 45, An­der­son Phillip 36 not out; Pre­ston Mc­Sween 5-60, Ken­neth Dem­ber 3-125)

VOL­CA­NOES 173 (De­von Smith 67, Em­manuel Stew­art 30, Keron Cot­toy 28; An­der­son Phillip 4-53) and four with­out loss.

<Hur­ri­canes (260) vs Scor­pi­ons 413-4>

NORTH SOUND, An­tigua – Ja­maica Scor­pi­ons, re­ply­ing to Lee­ward Is­lands Hur­ri­canes’ first in­nings of 260, were 413 for four at the close on the sec­ond day of their eighth round match in the Re­gion­al Four-Day Cham­pi­onship at the Vi­vian Richards Crick­et Sta­di­um yes­ter­day.

SCORES

HUR­RI­CANES 260 (Alzarri Joseph 89, Je­re­mi­ah Louis 75, Jah­mar Hamil­ton 40; Mar­quino Mind­ley 5-65, Der­val Green 4-84)

SCOR­PI­ONS 413 for four (Jer­maine Black­wood 196 not out, John Camp­bell 105 not out, Nkrumah Bon­ner 48)