By Brij Parasnath in Trinidad & Tobago
DEBUTANT fast bowler Uthman Muhammad featured prominently with the bat and together with Marlon Richards fought a brilliant rear-guard battle to give the T&T Red Force the initiative at the end of the first day of the WICB PCL Fourth Round match against reigning champion and current leader Guyana Jaguars at the famous Queen’s Park Oval yesterday.

In the rain-affected day, medium pacer Christopher Barnwell, who returned to the team’s starting eleven after missing out on the action in the previous round against Barbados Pride because of a niggling back injury; provided the Guyana Jaguars with the right impetus to strive for outright victory and maintain their unbeaten streak that has lasted over ten matches.
In his 38th first-class match, the 28-year-old Barnwell collected his third career five-wicket haul and left the T&T Red Force tottering at 102 for 8 after 42.3 overs.
But newcomer Muhammad joined Guyanese-born Richards and they attacked the bowlers and established a new first-class ninth-wicket partnership against Guyana when they added 108 vital runs before both were dismissed for 53 a-piece.
T&T Red Force first innings ended at 210 while Guyana Jaguars closed the day at 9 without loss with openers Asad Fudadin (2*) and Shimron Hetmyer (7*) set to resume the battle today with all hopes of overhauling the homesters’ total and securing a decent first innings lead.
Muhammad stole the spotlight with his belligerent stroke play and slammed two huge sixes and six fours off 116 balls faced while Richards struck three fours off 126 balls. Their 82-minute partnership bettered the previous best ninth-wicket stand of 67 between Raphick Jumadeen (40) and Alec Burns (31*) for Trinidad and Tobago against Guyana at the QP Oval in 1979.
The Richards/Muhammad 108-run partnership also bettered the previous highest ninth wicket stand of 82 between Joseph Rogers (51) and CR Smith (62) for Trinidad against British Guiana at the same venue in 1910. They, however, missed out on the ground’s First Class record of 112 which was set by Barnwell (65*) and Veerasammy Permaul (50*) during their PCL encounter last year.
Barnwell finished with excellent figures of 12-4-32-5 after he put the skids on the Red Force top order and prised out Yannic Cariah, caught by Hetmyer at third slip for 6; Kyle Hope LBW for 11, Narsingh Deonarine, caught by Leon Johnson at third slip for 9 and Imran Khan, caught by Shivnarine Chanderpaul at mid-on, for 10.
WICB regional first- class season aggregate record-holder Permaul grabbed three for 59 while new-ball bowlers Raymon Reifer and Ronsford Beaton took one each.