Leewards snatch early points to keep advantage

FOURSQUARE, Barbados (CMC) – Montcin Hodge carried his bat for a half-century to allow Leeward Islands to maintain a slight advantage after two days of their fourth round clash with Trinidad & Tobago in the WICB regional first class championship at Foursquare Oval yesterday.

The 22-year-old Hodge made an unbeaten 54 from 244 deliveries with two boundaries as the Leewards made 201 in response to the Trinidadians’ first innings total of 176.

Batting a second time, T&T were 94 for three at the close, a lead of 69 runs with seven wickets in hand. Sherwin Ganga was unbeaten on 23 and Jason Mohammed undefeated on 21 in what has been a crucial 45-run, fourth-wicket stand.

Leewards started the day on 30 for one and quickly moved to 63 before Kieran Powell was caught by wicketkeeper Gibran Mohammed off the bowling of off-spinner Amit Jaggernauth for 38, ending a 56-run second-wicket stand with Hodge.

Jaggernauth quickly removed Codville Rodgers for two, four balls later and off-spinner Sherwin Ganga then inflicted a double blow when he had both Omari Banks (3) and captain Steve Liburd (0) caught by Justin Guillen at silly mid-off off consecutive deliveries to leave the Leewards tottering at 72 for five.

Hodge and Wilden Cornwall, who stroked an aggressive 34, staged a recovery by adding 50 for the sixth wicket to take the score to 122 before Cornwall threw his hand away by smashing the tournament’s leading wicket-taker Imran Khan down to Sunil Narine at long on.

Languishing at 160 for eight, the lower order wagged courtesy of a 37-run, ninth-wicket stand between Lionel Baker (17) and Hodge and it allowed the Leeward Islands to edge past T&T’s first innings total and take first innings points.

Jaggernauth finished with four for 79 while Khan’s three for 54 took his season tally to 25 wickets. Sherwin Ganga added another two wickets for 21 runs.

When T&T batted for a second time Cornwall simply picked up where he left off in the first innings when he took five wickets.

The burly 36-year-old medium pacer induced a false shot from Guillen (1) who was caught behind with the score on five and Rodgers then took a stupendous catch at extra cover to send William Perkins packing for 29 at 45 for two.

After Daren Ganga tamely tapped back a ball to Anthony Martin to depart caught and bowled for 15 with just four runs added to the total, his younger brother, Sherwin, and Jason Mohammed played with aplomb and punished regular loose deliveries to deny the Leewards’ bowlers any further success.
Cornwall finished with two for 28.

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