A ca­reer-best spell from Bar­ba­dos Pride off-spin­ner Chaim Hold­er and an un­de­feat­ed, sev­enth first-class hun­dred for re­tir­ing Guyana Harpy Ea­gles cap­tain Leon John­son marked the West In­dies Cham­pi­onship yes­ter­day.

Hold­er, 28, bagged five for 71 from 18.3 overs, and de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons Pride, sting­ing from a de­flat­ing loss in the pre­vi­ous round, bowled out hosts Trinidad & To­ba­go Red Force about an hour af­ter tea.

John­son, 35, an­nounced this month that he was re­tir­ing af­ter this sea­son, but he gave them a re­minder of his val­ue when he came to their res­cue with 142 not out against Ja­maica Scor­pi­ons that dom­i­nat­ed the first day of the fourth round match in Guyana.

In south Trinidad, half-cen­turies from Kari­ma Gore, Kier­an Pow­ell, and Kofi James gave Lee­ward Is­lands Hur­ri­canes a strong start against Wind­ward Is­lands Vol­ca­noes.

AT QUEEN’S PARK OVAL: Hold­er de­fied a half-cen­tu­ry from dis­card­ed in­ter­na­tion­al bats­man Ja­son Mo­hammed and led the de­mo­li­tion of Red Force first in­nings bat­ting for 203.

Pac­er Jair McAl­lis­ter sup­port­ed with three for 31 from 15 overs be­fore Pride replied with 40 with­out loss at the close with Zachary Mc­Cask­ie not out on 21 and left-han­der Shayne Mose­ley not out on 19.

Mo­hammed led the Red Force bat­ting with 55 and an­chored two valu­able stands with Tion Web­ster and West In­dies wick­et­keep­er-bats­man Joshua Da Sil­va to prop up the Red Force af­ter they won the toss and de­cid­ed to bat.

Da Sil­va made 32 and dom­i­nat­ed a fourth-wick­et stand of 48 with Mo­hammed be­fore he was lbw to McAl­lis­ter, and Web­ster made 46 and led the way in a fifth-wick­et stand of 39 be­fore Mo­hammed was the first of six wick­ets that fell for 40 in the span of 18 overs af­ter tea.

AT THE GUYANA NA­TION­AL STA­DI­UM: John­son shared 126 for the fifth wick­et with Tevin Im­lach and a se­ries of small stands to car­ry the ta­ble-lead­ing Harpy Ea­gles to 268 for nine in their first in­nings at the close.

Sent in to bat, the Harpy Ea­gles stum­bled to 55 for four be­fore lunch, and John­son, play­ing in his 106th match for the hosts, drew on all his ex­pe­ri­ence to pull them out of the hole.

He has struck 16 fours from 248 balls in 5-1/2 hours at the crease, Im­lach sup­port­ed with 46, and open­er Kevlon An­der­son got the ball rolling with 36.

Test pac­er Mar­quino Mind­ley, and fel­low pac­ers Der­val Green and Ojay Shields have tak­en two wick­ets apiece for the Scor­pi­ons.

AT BRI­AN LARA CRICK­ET ACAD­E­MY: Unit­ed States in­ter­na­tion­al Gore was un­beat­en on 87 and siz­ing up a maid­en first-class hun­dred on de­but to lead the Hur­ri­canes to 271 for six in the first in­nings at the close.

Gore has so far struck 12 fours and one six from 177 balls in close to four hours at the crease and shared 150 un­bro­ken for the sev­enth wick­et with Kofi James af­ter the Hur­ri­canes wob­bled to 121 for six af­ter lunch.

James was not out on 61 with three fours and one six from 153 balls in three hours of bat­ting.

Ear­li­er, dis­card­ed in­ter­na­tion­al left-han­der Pow­ell fol­lowed up his match-win­ning hun­dred against Pride in the pre­vi­ous round with 75 and held the top half of the bat­ting to­geth­er be­fore he suc­cumbed to Ken­neth Dem­ber in the first hour af­ter lunch.

Off-spin­ner Dem­ber and left-arm pac­er Pre­ston Mc­Sween have tak­en two wick­ets each for the Vol­ca­noes. (CMC)