BECK­EN­HAM, Eng­land – Kavem Hodge helped the West In­dies Test squad make a con­fi­dent start to their Tour of Eng­land with a pur­pose­ful hun­dred against a First-Class Coun­ties Se­lect XI on Wednes­day.

The 31-year-old Do­mini­can slammed 112 and three oth­ers gath­ered half-cen­turies be­fore the Caribbean side were dis­missed for 339 in their first in­nings af­ter they won the toss and de­cid­ed to bat on a chilly first day of three-day match at the Kent Coun­ty Crick­et Ground.

Al­ick Athanaze and fel­low left-han­der Kirk McKen­zie – both on their first Test tour to Eng­land like Hodge – and lanky open­er Mikyle Louis – on the first Test tour of his ca­reer – sup­port­ed with con­trast­ing half-cen­turies to get the vis­i­tors off to a strong start.

The FCC Se­lect XI were 15 with­out loss at the close with their cap­tain Ben McK­in­ney, not out on 11, and fel­low open­er Har­ry Singh, not out on two.

Ear­li­er, Hodge prac­ti­cal­ly guar­an­teed him­self a spot in the side to play against Eng­land in the first Test, start­ing at Lord’s this com­ing Wednes­day, when he led the West In­dies bat­ting with a three-hour in­nings that in­clud­ed 14 fours and two six­es from 128 balls.

“It was pret­ty good, but it was cold,” Hodge told re­porters af­ter play. “I en­joyed it be­cause it’s my first time play­ing in Eng­land, and it’s al­ways good com­ing out here, re­gard­less of whether it’s your first time, and make a good im­pres­sion and make the most of the op­por­tu­ni­ty, so it was good to spend some time in the mid­dle.

“It’s just get­ting ac­cus­tomed to the con­di­tions be­cause it’s much cold­er than the Caribbean and the ball swings a lot more, and when the ball hits you, it stings a lot. We were lucky enough to come a week be­fore the first Test, so I think it’s just a mat­ter of tak­ing in the en­vi­ron­ment, en­joy­ing each oth­er’s com­pa­ny and work­ing hard to achieve our goals.”

Hodge added it will be a thrill to play at Lord’s if giv­en the chance.

“It’s al­ways a dream to play that at Lord’s,” he said. “Some­thing grow­ing up as a kid that you sit and dream about, you watch a lot of crick­et at Lord’s. It’s some­thing I am look­ing for­ward to – get­ting the op­por­tu­ni­ty to sit and watch the game, play­ing there with the crowd, the pres­tige, the home of crick­et, it’s some­thing that every crick­eter as­pires to do.”

He reached his hun­dred from 119 balls when he charged down the pitch to off-spin­ner Farhan Ahmed, younger broth­er of teenaged Eng­land leg-spin­ner Re­han Ahmed, and loft­ed a de­liv­ery over long-on for his sec­ond six.

Athanaze sup­port­ed with 74, McKen­zie made 73, and Louis equipped him­self well with an even 50 in be­tween the Caribbean side los­ing the open­ing pair of their cap­tain Kraigg Brath­waite and fel­low Bar­ba­di­an Zachary Mc­Cask­ie cheap­ly and the bot­tom half of the bat­ting crum­bled.

Ahmed end­ed with four for 48 from 12 overs, and South Africa-born pac­er John Turn­er fin­ished with four for 60 from 12.1 overs.

West In­dies start­ed the match with­out left-arm spin­ner Gu­dakesh Motie and fel­low Guyanese Shamar Joseph be­cause their flight out of George­town was can­celled be­cause of the pas­sage of Hur­ri­cane Beryl.

Me­dia re­ports in­di­cat­ed that Motie ar­rived on Wednes­day, and fast bowler Joseph is sched­uled to ar­rive on Fri­day.

The vis­i­tors were reel­ing on 10 for two in­side the first 15 min­utes of play af­ter Mc­Cask­ie was caught be­hind off left-arm pac­er John Hull for two, and Brath­waite was caught at third slip off Turn­er for four.

West In­dies reached lunch on 116 for three af­ter Louis shared a 106-run stand with McKen­zie for the third wick­et, but he was caught at first slip off Turn­er with the fi­nal de­liv­ery be­fore the in­ter­val.

The 23-year-old Kit­tit­ian open­er, the lead­ing scor­er in the West In­dies Cham­pi­onship ear­li­er this year, cracked six fours and two six­es from 63 balls in an hour-and-a-half at the crease.

He had clipped off-spin­ner Bertie Fore­man through mid-wick­et for a sin­gle in the pre­vi­ous over to reach his 50 from 62 balls and bring up the 100 part­ner­ship.

McKen­zie, not out on 51 at lunch, al­so reached his 50 be­fore lunch when he cut his 58th ball through point off Fore­man, but he fell in the sev­enth over af­ter the in­ter­val when was caught at mid-on off the same bowler. He hit 11 fours and two six­es from 85 balls in al­most two hours bat­ting.

Hodge joined fel­low Do­mini­can Athanaze at the crease and runs flowed freely for West In­dies, and they reached 271 for four at tea af­ter the two com­pa­tri­ots bed­ded down to set the foun­da­tion for a 138-run, fifth wick­et stand.

Both reached their half-cen­tu­ry be­fore the break when Athanaze pulled his 71st ball from pac­er Ed­die Jack through mid-wick­et for his sixth four and Hodge played his 63rd ball from Son­ny Bak­er to mid-on for a quick sin­gle.

Athanaze failed to add to his fi­nal score af­ter the break, and Ahmed got him caught in­side the fine leg bound­ary from a top edged sweep. He struck eight fours and two six­es from 105 balls in close to 2-1/2 hours of bat­ting.

Af­ter his dis­missal, Hodge got lit­tle sup­port from the rest of the bat­ting, and West In­dies lost their five wick­ets for 40 in the span of 51 balls, in­clud­ing Hodge, whose dis­missal, caught at deep mid-wick­et off Turn­er, brought the in­nings to a close.

Scores:

WEST IN­DIES 339 (Kavem Hodge 112, Al­ick Athanaze 74, Kirk McKen­zie 73, Mikyle Louis 50; Farhan Ahmed 4-48, John Turn­er 4-60).

FIRST-CLASS COUN­TIES SE­LECT XI 15 with­out loss.

CMC