CAVE HILL, Barbados (CMC) – Danny Briggs and Chris Woakes upstaged another memorable spell from Ryan Austin to tighten England Lions’ grip on their match against the Combined Campuses & Colleges in the WICB Regional first-class championship yesterday.
Left-arm spinner Briggs and fast-medium bowler Woakes collected two wickets for 34 runs apiece from 17 and 16 overs respectively, as the CCC, replying to the Lions’ first innings total of 373, reached 176 for five at the close on the second day of their fourth round match at the Three Ws Oval.
Kyle Corbin has so far led the way with 54 for the CCC, Raymon Reifer was not out on 46, and the home team captain Omar Phillips made 36.
Off-spinner Austin had taken seven wickets – the second time in his first-class career – for 134 runs from 43.3 overs, and left-arm spinner Kavesh Kantasingh three for 92 from 32 overs, as the Lions were dismissed just before lunch.
Jimmy Adams ended with the top score for the Lions of 142. He batted for 369 minutes, faced 295 balls and struck 13 fours and one six.
Johnny Bairstow got 85, but none of the batsmen in the England tail scored more than 20.
CCC then stumbled to 70 for three at tea, after Briggs bowled Romel Currency for nine, before Phillips suffered a similar fate off leg-spinner Adil Rashid, who also bowled Kjorn Ottley for 15 offering no stroke.
After the break, Corbin, a century-maker in the previous round of matches, and left-hander Reifer stabilised the innings with a stand of 57 for the fourth wicket.
Corbin occupied the crease for 88 minutes, faced 96 balls, and hit four sixes and two fours before he was caught behind off Woakes, who also held a return catch to dismiss Shacoya Thomas for two in his maiden first-class innings to leave the CCC 149 for five.
Reifer has been batting for 151 minutes, having received 95 balls, with three fours and two sixes.
England Lions started the day on 260 for four, but the bottom half of their batting was undermined by the 29-year-old Austin, who now has 200 first-class wickets in 52 matches.
Kantasingh made the breakthrough, when he trapped Adams lbw, following a 134-run stand for the sixth wicket with Bairstow.
Austin then snared the last five Lions wickets, with clever flight and turn. He had Rashid caught at point from a cut for 15, Woakes was caught at backward short-leg 10, Bairstow, reverse sweeping, was caught at slip, Briggs was caught at forward short-leg for two, and Maurice Chambers was caught at slip for nought.
Bairstow was at the crease for 200 minutes, received 129 deliveries and struck seven boundaries.
CCC and the Lions, as well as three-time defending champions Jamaica all have 24 points, but the home team have effectively risen to the top of the eight-team table ahead of the visitors, under the tie-breaker rules of the competition.
CCC have gained the edge by virtue of their second victory for the season in the previous round, when they crushed Leeward Islands by 158 runs in Antigua. They also beat Windward Islands by 33 runs in their opening match.
The Lions gained first innings points from Trinidad & Tobago in their drawn match from the previous round in one of their toughest contests on this trip so far.