ST JOHN’S – Test glove­man Joshua Da Sil­va carved out his third first class hun­dred in his 50th first class game, to help Team Headley re­bound against a spir­it­ed West In­dies Acad­e­my, on the open­ing day of the first match in the Headley Weekes Tri-Se­ries in An­tigua on Wednes­day.

With his side tot­ter­ing pre­car­i­ous­ly on 59 for five in the open­ing ses­sion at Coolidge Crick­et Ground fol­low­ing fast bowler Jo­hann Layne’s im­pres­sive open­ing four-wick­et burst, the 24-year-old Da Sil­va en­tered to stroke a high qual­i­ty un­beat­en 136 and guide Team Headley to 259 all out.

He was sup­port­ed by Test prospect Akeem Jor­dan who struck a breezy 54 but the pair were the on­ly ones to pass 20 as the 19-year-old Layne fin­ished with five for 43 on first class de­but.

Jor­dan (2-15) then re­turned with the ball to give Team Headley a rous­ing start, the right-armer claim­ing two wick­ets in the first over of the in­nings with­out a run on the board.

How­ev­er, open­er Kirk McKen­zie came to his side’s res­cue with an un­beat­en 31 to see WI Acad­e­my to the close on 49 with­out fur­ther loss.

“We would’ve liked to have bat­ted out the day but from where we were, 259 is a de­cent to­tal – we can bowl to that,” cap­tain Da Sil­va said fol­low­ing the day’s play.

“Our bowlers have some­thing [to bowl at]. They don’t have to be too neg­a­tive. We can at­tack a lit­tle bit.

“We’ve got two quick wick­ets ear­ly on in this in­nings so to­mor­row we just want to come out here and do what we can.”

Opt­ing to bat first, Team Headley en­dured the worst pos­si­ble start when Test open­er Kier­an Pow­ell feath­ered a leg side catch to wick­et­keep­er Tevin Im­lach with­out scor­ing off the third ball of the morn­ing from Layne, with a sin­gle run on the board.

They then lost left-hand­ed open­er Sheyne Mose­ley for nine to in­jury in the fourth over af­ter he col­lid­ed with Kevlon An­der­son at the strik­er’s end, af­ter com­plet­ing a quick sin­gle.

Layne con­tin­ued his de­mo­li­tion when he had an­oth­er Test star Dar­ren Bra­vo caught chest high at first slip by Ted­dy Bish­op dri­ving at a wide full length de­liv­ery for five, be­fore get­ting Kavem Hodge to hole out to short mid-wick­et on the pull for 10.

With the in­nings now lan­guish­ing on 34 for three, Layne hit wick­et­keep­er Tevyn Wal­cott (15) in front to gain an lbw de­ci­sion and left-arm spin­ner Joshua Bish­op then spun one through the gate to bowl Justin Greaves for three.

The right-han­der Da Sil­va sta­bilised the in­nings, first com­bin­ing with Jor­dan in a 105-run, sixth wick­et stand which steered Team Headley to lunch on 96 for five.

All told, Da Sil­va faced 201 balls in 3-½ hours and count­ed 16 fours and three six­es while Jor­dan played with en­ter­prise to punch eight fours in a 64-ball in­nings.

Jor­dan gave Layne his fifth wick­et when he top-edged a pull to short mid-wick­et in the first hour af­ter the in­ter­val but An­der­son Phillip (16) stuck with Da Sil­va, un­beat­en on 34 at lunch, in a 38-run, sev­enth wick­et stand, to en­sure the tail wagged.

Da Sil­va reached triple fig­ures in the penul­ti­mate over be­fore tea to be 102 not out at the break, and then eked out pre­cious runs in post­ing a fur­ther 22 for the eighth with Chaim Hold­er (10) and 35 for the ninth with Mar­quino Mind­ley (0).

WI Acad­e­my’s re­ply al­so start­ed shak­i­ly, Kea­gan Sim­monds tap­ping a low re­turn catch to Jor­dan off the fifth ball of the in­nings and Ted­dy Bish­op hav­ing his stumps shat­tered next ball, miss­ing a dri­ve at a full length de­liv­ery which nipped back.

CMC

Scores:

TEAM HEADLEY 259 all out (Joshua Da Sil­va 136 not out, Akeem Jor­dan 54; Jo­hann Layne 5-43) vs WI ACAD­E­MY 49 for two (Kirk McKen­zie 31 not out; Ac­k­eem Jor­dan 2-15).