ST JOHN’S, An­tigua – De­fend­ing cham­pi­ons Guyana Harpy Ea­gles have found them­selves on the back­foot against the Lee­ward Is­lands Hur­ri­canes, while the Wind­ward Is­lands Vol­ca­noes staged a late fight­back against Bar­ba­dos Pride on the open­ing day of ac­tion in their cru­cial sixth round match­es in the West In­dies Cham­pi­onship on Wednes­day.

The Hur­ri­canes dis­missed the ta­ble lead­ers for a pal­try 193 and fin­ished the day 50 runs adrift on 143 for four, and will be favourites to grab a healthy first in­nings lead.

Mean­while, the Vol­ca­noes struck in the evening ses­sion to re­duce the Pride to 94 for five af­ter they were bun­dled out for 186.

Else­where, the Com­bined Cam­pus­es and Col­leges (CCC) and the West In­dies Acad­e­my shared ho­n­ours at the close of play.

At Warn­er Park: The Lee­ward Is­lands Hur­ri­canes used a strong bowl­ing ef­fort to put them­selves in a strong po­si­tion against the Guyana Harpy Ea­gles.

Cap­tain Rah­keem Corn­wall led the way with a three-wick­et haul, while Hay­den Walsh Jr, Justin Greaves and Os­hane Thomas all took two wick­ets to lim­it the Harpy Ea­gles to 193.

Kevlon An­der­son bat­ted through the in­nings, scor­ing an un­beat­en 77 from 96 balls, and the Harpy Ea­gles need­ed some use­ful con­tri­bu­tions from their low­er or­der to get up to their even­tu­al to­tal af­ter they found them­selves at 69 for five at one point.

Corn­wall struck ear­ly to get rid of open­er Ray­mond Perez for 10 and medi­um pac­er Javier Spencer ac­count­ed for his part­ner Matthew Nan­du, al­so for 10, as the Harpy Ea­gles slipped to 28 for two.

They found them­selves in fur­ther trou­ble when pac­er Thomas dis­missed cap­tain Tevin Im­lach for five, Greaves sent Ke­mol Sa­vory pack­ing for four and Corn­wall re­turned to claim the scalp of Kevin Sin­clair for 13.

How­ev­er, An­der­son joined forces with Keemo Paul and the pair added 50 runs for the sixth wick­et to get their side out of trou­ble.

And when Thomas claimed Paul’s wick­et for 31, An­der­son found an­oth­er al­ly in Ronal­do Al­imo­hamed, who made 30, with the two adding a fur­ther 43 runs.

But once leg spin­ner Walsh Jr dis­missed Al­imo­hamed, the end came swift­ly for the Harpy Ea­gles as An­der­son was left strand­ed.

Corn­wall led the way with 3-25, while Walsh Jr (2-26,) Greaves (2-30) and Thomas (2-48), lent good sup­port.

The Hur­ri­canes then made a strong start in their re­sponse, with open­ers Mikyle Louis and Kadeem Hen­ry putting on 50 for the first wick­et.

Paul made the break­through by re­mov­ing Hen­ry for 22, but his de­par­ture brought Kea­cy Car­ty to the crease and he and Louis had the Hur­ri­canes coast­ing at 106 for one dur­ing a 56-run part­ner­ship.

The Harpy Ea­gles then claimed three late wick­ets to keep them­selves in the con­test, with Nial Smith dis­miss­ing Louis for an ag­gres­sive 73 from just 67 balls, Al­imo­hamed snagged Kari­ma Gore for one and Paul picked up the wick­et of Jew­el An­drew to re­duce them to 131 for four.

The Hur­ri­canes lost no fur­ther wick­ets to end the day on 143 for four, 50 runs be­hind on first in­nings.

Paul has so far tak­en 2-43 for the Harpy Ea­gles.

Sunil Am­bris scored a cen­tu­ry against the Bar­ba­dos Pride

At the Daren Sam­my Na­tion­al Crick­et Sta­di­um: The Bar­ba­dos Pride were in con­trol of their con­test against the Wind­ward Is­lands Vol­ca­noes but lost two late wick­ets to con­cede their ad­van­tage.

De­spite a bat­tling ninth first class cen­tu­ry from Sunil Am­bris, the Pride pro­duced a dis­ci­plined bowl­ing per­for­mance to rout the home side for just 186.

Am­bris was the back­bone of the home side’s in­nings, scor­ing 110 from 116 balls with 13 fours and one six, but he got lit­tle sup­port from the oth­er bat­ters.

The Pride would ac­tu­al­ly have been dis­ap­point­ed the Vol­ca­noes got to their even­tu­al to­tal af­ter claim­ing three ear­ly wick­ets with just one run on the board.

Both open­ers Ki­mani Melius and Je­re­my Solozano were dis­missed for ducks, while cap­tain Al­ick Athanaze made just one as the Vol­ca­noes made a dis­as­trous start.

Pac­er Ra­mon Sim­monds claimed his sec­ond wick­et by dis­miss­ing Kavem Hodge for six and left-arm pac­er Do­minic Drakes trapped Shadrack Descarte lbw for three to leave them in even fur­ther trou­ble at 36 for five.

Am­bris and Noelle Leo, who made 27, stemmed the flow of wick­ets by adding 36 runs for the sixth wick­et be­fore Leo fell to leg spin­ner Jomel War­ri­can.

Ryan John made 10 be­fore be­com­ing fast bowler’s Jair McAl­lis­ter’s first wick­et and the Vol­ca­noes seemed in dan­ger of be­ing bowled out for un­der a hun­dred as they slipped to 86 for sev­en.

How­ev­er, Ken­neth Dem­ber joined forces with Am­bris and the two frus­trat­ed the Pride’s at­tempts to wrap up the in­nings dur­ing a 62-run part­ner­ship for the eighth wick­et.

Dem­ber even­tu­al­ly fell to pac­er Matthew Forde af­ter scor­ing a pa­tient 14 from 55 balls to leave the Harpy Ea­gles 148 for eight.

Am­bris then added 38 cru­cial runs with tailen­ders Keon Gas­ton and Gilon Tyson to com­plete their im­pres­sive fight­back.

Forde (2-19), Sim­monds (2-32), War­ri­can (2-45) and Drakes (2-48) all took two wick­ets apiece.

The Pride en­dured a rocky start in their re­ply, with Keon Gas­ton ac­count­ing for cap­tain Kraigg Brath­waite for just one and Kevin Wick­ham for 12, while Jonathan Drakes fell to Ryan John for six to leave them stum­bling on 23 for three.

Open­er Shayne Mose­ley and Kyle May­ers stead­ied the in­nings in a 57-run stand, to help the Pride re­cov­er to 80 for three.

But in the fi­nal min­utes of play, pac­er Tyson re­moved Mose­ley for 22 and Leniko Bouch­er for a duck with­out an­oth­er run be­ing added, as the Pride end­ed the day on 80 for five, still 92 runs be­hind on first in­nings.

Gat­son has so far tak­en 2-22, while Tyson fin­ished with 2-23.

At the Sir Frank Wor­rell Memo­r­i­al Ground: The Com­bined Cam­pus­es and Col­leges and West In­dies Acad­e­my are locked in a close bat­tle head­ing in­to Thurs­day’s sec­ond day.

CCC had looked set to post a for­mi­da­ble to­tal, but left-arm spin­ner Joshua Bish­op ripped through their mid­dle or­der to lim­it them to 238.

At the close of play, the WI Acad­e­my reached 37 for one, still 201 runs be­hind on first in­nings.

But the day be­longed to Bish­op, with his hero­ics leav­ing the match even­ly poised.

CCC were led by Shaqkere Par­ris, who scored 52, Kyle Corbin, who made a pa­tient 48 and open­er Jo­hann Je­re­mi­ah who added 47, which helped to pro­pel them to 168 for three.

But Bish­op along with fel­low spin­ner Zis­han Mo­tara spun a web around the CCC bat­ters.

Mo­tara bowled Par­ris and then dis­missed Daniel Williams for five, be­fore Bish­op claimed the last four wick­ets to fall as the CCC lost their last sev­en wick­ets for just 70 runs.

Bish­op end­ed with 6-78 while Mo­tara claimed 2-57. CMC

Sum­marised scores

At the Daren Sam­my Na­tion­al Crick­et Sta­di­um in St Lu­cia: Bar­ba­dos Pride trail Wind­ward Is­lands Vol­ca­noes by 92 runs with five wick­ets re­main­ing.

VOL­CA­NOES 186 in 49.3 overs (Sunil Am­bris 110, Noelle Leo 27, Ken­neth Dem­ber 14, Ryan John 10; Matthew Forde 2-19, Ra­mon Sim­monds 2-32, Jomel War­ri­can 2-45, Do­minic Drakes 2-48).

PRIDE 94-5 in 25 overs (Kyle May­ers 40 not out, Shayne Mose­ley 22, Kevin Wick­ham 12; Keon Gas­ton 2-22, Gilon Tyson 2-23).

At Warn­er Park in St Kitts: Lee­ward Is­lands Hur­ri­canes trail Guyana Harpy Ea­gles by 50 runs with six wick­ets re­main­ing.

HARPY EA­GLES 193 in 44.4 overs (Kevlon An­der­son 77 not out, Keemo Paul 31, Ronal­do Al­imo­hamed 30, Kevin Sin­clair 13, Matthew Nan­du 10, Ray­mond Perez 10; Rah­keem Corn­wall 3-25, Hay­den Walsh Jr 2-26, Justin Greaves 2-30, Os­hane Thomas 2-48).

HUR­RI­CANES 143-4 in 33 overs (Mikyle Louis 73, Kadeem Hen­ry 22, Kea­cy Car­ty 20 not out, Jew­el An­drew 16; Keemo Paul 2-43).

At the Sir Frank Wor­rell Memo­r­i­al Ground in Trinidad and To­ba­go: West In­dies Acad­e­my trail Com­bined Cam­pus­es and Col­leges by 201 runs with nine wick­ets re­main­ing.

CCC 238 in 79 overs (Shaqkere Par­ris 52, Kyle Corbin 48, Jo­hann Je­re­mi­ah 47, Damel Eve­lyn 23, Akeem Jor­dan 14, Lar­ry Ed­ward 12 not out; Kier­an Pow­ell 12; Joshua Bish­op 6-78, Zis­han Mo­tara 2-57).

WI ACAD­E­MY 37-1 in nine overs (Mbe­ki Joseph 22 not out).

At the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my in Trinidad and To­ba­go: The Ja­maica Scor­pi­ons lead Trinidad and To­ba­go Red Force by 274 runs with four wick­ets re­main­ing.

SCOR­PI­ONS 274-6 in 87 overs (Javelle Glenn 99 not out, Jer­maine Black­wood 61, Ab­hi­jai Mans­ingh 51 not out, Kirk McKen­zie 31; Joshua James 2-20, Khary Pierre 2-64).

CMC rb/25