…Off-Spinner Richie Looknauth grabs 4-68 on debut

JONATHAN Drakes, Zachary McCaskie and Matthew Forde hit fifties to help Barbados Pride to 346 all out against Guyana Harpy Eagles on a truncated opening day of CWI Regional First-Class Championship yesterday at the Providence Stadium.
Drakes his 11 fours in 70 from 120 balls and added 88 for the third wicket with McCaskie’s 64 was decorated with seven fours and a couple of sixes and lasted 76 balls.

Debutant Matthew Forde, picked more for his fast bowling, made 82 from 91 balls with eight fours and three sixes while there were important contributions from the Holders with Chaim making 35 and Chemar getting 29.
Off-spinner Richie Looknauth captured 4-68 on debut while Renaldo Ali-Mohamed had 2-37 and the experienced Veerasammy Permaul grabbed 2-87 to take his First-Class to 638 wickets.
After a delay of 30 minutes, Barbados opted to bat on a good track and fast outfield despite the overnight and morning showers.
Leniko Boucher got going with a boundary off Isai Thorne before stroking Nial Smith for four.

Boucher reeled off two fours off Thorne in the same over but when on 19 with four boundaries before he was trapped LBW to Smith at 25-1.
Skipper Raymond Reifer (6) got going with a glorious cover drive off Smith who continued the plagued by a no-ball problem before Reifer, who previously played for Guyana, got a beauty from Ali-Mohamed and edged it to the Keeper Kemol Savory at 35-2.

Drakes joined McCaskie who blossomed from a cautious start and together the pair orchestrated ‘Operation Rebuild’ with an unfinished 69-run stand by Lunch.

In the first session, McCaskie played some enterprising shots and slug-swept Permaul for the lone six of the morning before reaching his seventh fifty at this level from 58 balls with 6 fours and six.
Drakes who reached the ropes three times, was unbeaten on 20 at lunch with the Bajans, the last team to beat Guyana at Providence in 2020.

The 28-year-old McCaskie has scored over 50 eight times but has only managed to convert once into a three-figure score and Barbados were 104-2 at the interval.
McCaskie stroked a boundary and added 14 to his lunchtime score before edging a catch to the Keeper as medium pacer Ali-Mohamed struck for the second time to leave Barbados on 123-3.

Kevin Wickham, who at just 21, has three tons and two fifties in 14 outings at this level, joined the set Drakes but with the score on 137-3, the rain stopped play.

After a 40-minute interruption, play resumed at 14:20 hours and Wickham (3) was trapped LBW in Looknauth’s first over as Barbados slipped to 137-4 to bring Demetrius Richards to the crease as the sun returned in all of its glory.
And so did Looknauth who trapped both Drakes and Richards lbw in the space of nine runs.

Drakes who was looking set for a big score after posting his third half-century played forward to one that turned back into the right-hander while the left-handed Richards was deceived in flight and spooned a catch to Tagenarine Chanderpaul at cover as the visitors were left on 191-6.
Forde (18) and Chaim Holder (13) steadied the ship with organised batting to take the score to 221-6 by Tea.

After the break, Fords, who played ‘White ball’ cricket for the West Indies, looked very positive after Tea as he and Holder to the score to 310-7 in a frustrating partnership for the Guyanese.

Forde, soon reached his fifty before using his feet and hitting Thorne over his head for six and Chaim Holder added 109 for the seventh wicket before Ford was caught behind off Permaul at 312-8 before Permaul struck again without addition to the score.

Chemar Holder threw his bat around hitting two fours and two sixes before he fell to Anthony Adams.
Today is the second day and is scheduled to commence at 10:00 hours