da spicy bet： Like a champion sprinter, Barbados made all the early running inthe opening stages of the Busta Cup semifinal against the LeewardIslands yesterday
da fezbet： 12-Feb-2000Leewards 190, Barbados 22-2Like a champion sprinter, Barbados made all the early running inthe opening stages of the Busta Cup semifinal against the LeewardIslands yesterday.Like a genuine distance runner, the Leewards, however, refused tobe outpaced and would claim to be on even keel at the quartermark.Defending champs Barbados, prevailing under overcast conditionson winning the toss, were fast out of the blocks, reducing theLeewards to 53 for four and later 129 for eight.No one will know if the hosts ran out of steam or if the Leewardssuddenly found a burst of energy, but for the next two hours thevisitors fought back gallantly.’Our overall performance was a little disappointing,’ Barbadoscoach William Bourne later admitted.’We were a little out of sorts in the afternoon and we missed agood opportunity to go through the lower order. It’s beensomething that has been happening often this season.’The Leewards’ eventual total was not an imposing one, butconsidering that Barbados’ average score per innings during thepreliminaries was a modest 204, Ridley Jacobs’ men would havebeen encouraged.And it showed in the 23 overs they delivered when Barbadosmanaged less than a run an over in the face of impressive bowlingfrom Curtly Ambrose and his promising trainee, Kerry Jeremy, whocombined to remove Philo Wallace and Sherwin Campbell.The more than 3 000 spectators at Kensington Oval weredisappointed when the Barbados captain miscued a hook offAmbrose’s sixth ball and skied a catch to square-leg where CarlTuckett initially appeared to have been bothered by the sun.No. 3 bat Adrian Griffith endured a torrid time against Ambrose,who rattled him with blows to the chest and helmet.Both Griffith and Campbell have been short of runs sincereturning from New Zealand and just when it seemed they hadsettled in, Campbell, unable to push completely forward, was lbwto the 20-year-old Jeremy.It now sets the stage for an intriguing Day 2.’Our priority is to get first innings lead,’ Bourne said.’Hopefully we will be able to get in and possibly try and bat on.We know what we have to do.’The Leewards owed their initial fightback to Runako Morton andWarrington Phillip, the pair ensuring that the last two wicketsproduced 61 runs.Fresh from a maiden first-class hundred in the last match againstJamaica, the 21-year-old Morton completed his third half-centuryagainst Barbados this season.His 60 off 121 balls in 2-1/2 hours was an innings of measuredself-restrain and selective aggression and was even better thanhis knocks of 54 and 70 not out in the second-round preliminarymatch at the same venue a month ago.By the time he was ninth out, bowled trying to force Bryanthrough the offside, there were some who were nominating him as amiddle-order candidate for the West Indies team to face Zimbabwenext month.The Leewards desperately needed his innings after the pace of IanBradshaw and Hendy Bryan, the varied off-spin of Ryan Hurley, thesafe hands of wicket-keeper Courtney Browne and irresponsiblebatting marked the play before tea.Bradshaw, replacing an injured Pedro Collins, removed openersAlex Adams and Wilden Cornwall before lunch when there was also awicket apiece for Bryan and Dayne Maynard. Hurley took care ofthe experienced Dave Joseph and stand-in captain Jacobs soonafter the break.Adams was the first of two catches to Browne, the Anguillansnapped up in front of first slip in Bradshaw’s second over.Browne also showed good work to haul in the over-aggressive DaveJoseph over his head and slightly to his right.When Joseph launched into another of his big drives, he gave theimpression that he did not remember that Cornwall had been thevictim of a similarly indiscreet shot in the previous over, thefirst of a new spell from Bradshaw.The Leewards went to lunch at 73 for four, but on resumption theever-improving Hurley struck in his first two overs with thedismissals of Keith Arthurton to a bat-pad catch at silly-pointand Jacobs, lbw on the back foot.That made it 92 for six, but Morton stuck around.
