Honours even at Sabina

Jermaine Lannaman, Sunday Gleaner Writer

The honours are even heading into today's third and penultimate day of the West Indies Cricket Board Regional Four-day Tournament clash between leaders Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago at Sabina Park.

Resuming on their overnight score of 297 for five, Jamaica led by Wavell Hinds, who made 162 not out, went on to post a challenging 356 in their first innings.

Trinidad and Tobago, in their reply, reached 172 for three, 184 runs behind, with captain Daren Ganga, 75 not out, and his brother, Sherwin Ganga, 11 not out, at the crease.

The day started with Hinds, 131 not out overnight, and all-rounder David Bernard, who was 55 not out, looking to build a considerable lead for the home, and after the opening exchanges they were trotting along fairly well.

However, with the score on 325 and Bernard Jr on 70, Jamaica lost their sixth wicket when the latter was adjudged leg before wicket off the bowling of leg-spinner Imran Khan, thus ending what had a blossomed into a 149-run stand.

With wicketkeeper Chadwick Walton coming off a half-century in Jamaica's last match, the home team was hoping that he would have picked up where he left off and form a fruitful alliance with Hinds, however, with the score on 328 and him on two he was caught off the bowling of leg-spinning all-rounder, Yannick Cariah.

Fine strokes

However, while dismissals were taking place at one end, Hinds made sure he reached his 150 by continuing to reel off some fine strokes.

He brought up his 150 in 236 balls, and it included 11 fours and seven sixes in close to five and a half hours of batting.

He was, however, left stranded as thanks to some accurate bowling from pacer Rayad Emrit, who ended with three for 43, the visitors went on to wrap up Jamaica's innings by quickly picking up the wickets of fast bowler Andrew Richardson, bowled for eight, and spinner Odean Brown, who was caught at gully off the first ball he faced.

Emrit will resume on a hat-trick when Jamaica bat again.

Jamaica took the field with Jerome Taylor, who missed the team's last two games because of the death of his grandmother, making a return and sharing the new ball with the in-form Andrew Richardson. They got an early breakthrough when, with the score on 17, Richardson was able to induce opener Tishan Maraj into a false stoke which resulted in Simon Jackson taking a sharp catch at slip.

A fighting resistance

But that was the only joy for Jamaica in the morning session as thanks to an 84-run second-wicket partnership between opener Lendl Simmons and Daren, Trinidad was able to put up a fighting resistance with both batsmen producing some scintillating shots square of the wicket and down the ground, much to the appreciation of the spectators who were on hand.

The partnership, however, would eventually come to an end when on reaching his half-century Simmons failed to negotiate a sharp in-swinger from Taylor, and was given out leg before for an uncharacteristic 56 off 111 balls in over a hour and a half of batting.

Young batsman Jason Mohammed then joined his skipper, and together the pair put on 43 for the third wicket before the right-handed Mohammed, after looking a bit out of depth at this level, failed to effectively negotiate a bouncer from Richardson and was caught by Walton for 13 of 64 balls.

Play resumes today at 10:00 a.m.

• Jamaica 1st Innings

(overnight 297 for five)

W. Hinds not out

162D. Bernard lbw b Khan 70+C. Walton c Jaggernauth b Cariah 2J. Taylor c Simmons b Cariah 1A. Richardson b Emrit 8O. Brown c Mohammed b Emrit 0

Extras: (lb2, w5, nb7) 14

Total: (all out, 107.5 overs) 356

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-23, 3-59, 4-60, 5-176, 6-325, 7-328, 8-334, 9-356, 10-356.

Bowling: Gabriel 20-5-44-1, Emrit 12.5-0-43-3, Simmons 7-1-33-1, S Ganga 17-3-49-1, Jaggernauth 19-2-79-1, Imran Khan 13-3-34-1, Jason Mohammed 5-2-4-0, Cariah 14-1-68-2.

• T&T 1st Innings

T. Maraj c Jackson b Richardson

9L. Simmons lbw b Taylor 56D. Ganga not out 75

J. Mohammed c wk Walton b

Richardson

13S. Ganga not out 11

Extras: (b5, lb2, nb1) 8

Total: (3 wkts, 70 overs) 172

Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-101, 3-144.

Bowling: Taylor 12-3-25-1, Richardson 14-1-34-2, Bernard 4-2-5-0, Hyatt 3-1-12-0, Hinds 6-3-6-0, Brown 22-4-64-0, Lambert 7-2-16-0, Nash 2-0-3-0.

Position: T&T trail by 184 runs.

Toss: Jamaica.

Umpires: Vincent Bullen, Vivian Johnson.