BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – Trinidad and Tobago ended just two wickets short of an unlikely victory as Barbados were made to hang on for dear life on the final evening as their WICB first class match came to a thrilling climax at Kensington Oval yesterday.

The Barbadian ninth-wicket pair of Patrick Browne and Kemar Roach batted out the last five overs to keep the rampaging Trinis at bay, as leg-spinner Imran Khan again tormented the hosts by grabbing four for 51.

Set an unlikely victory target of 298 off 61 overs after Trinidad declared their second innings at 412 for nine at lunch, Barbados ended on 193 for eight when the match finished at 17:03 h.

T&T skipper Daren Ganga praised his team for their superb comeback effort after losing first innings lead by 115 runs.

“This was a great effort from the Trinidad and Tobago team and everyone played a part in helping us come so close to what would have been a memorable victory,” Ganga said afterward.

“We knew once we had Barbados batting second and we pushed the panic button we could get a result. We didn’t get the 10 wickets but this is a good comeback and we will use it as motivation going forward in the upcoming matches.”

He added: “It was a good batting pitch so we knew we had to set a target which would put pressure on Barbados and we were one bowler short with Ravi Rampaul unable to bowl in the match.

“We got three points and they got six but we ended on a high and we are happy about that.”

With the score on 95 for two at tea, the game looked headed for a draw but Khan engineered a massive collapse in the final hour which saw the Bajans lose six wickets for 26 runs before Browne and Roach took then to safety.

Khan finished with the brilliant match figures of 11 for 122 and is now the leading wicket-taker in the tournament with 20 wickets from three matches.

The slide started when he had captain Ryan Hinds (42) caught at cover driving with the score on 158 for three, after the left-hander had added 88 for the third wicket with opener Jason Haynes who scored 83.

Eight runs later, Haynes was brilliantly run-out by a direct hit from Rayad Emrit’s rocket throw from deep square-leg while attempting a second run after batting for 3 ¼ hours, facing 178 balls and hitting seven fours.

Kevin Stoute held out to substitute Richard Kelly in the deep off Khan for eight at 175 for five and four runs later, Kelly was on the ball again with a pin-point accurate throw to the bowler’s end to run-out Dwayne Smith for 11 as he was sent back, attempting a risky single.

In Khan’s next over, Nikolai Charles swept the last ball straight into the hands of Emrit at square-leg without scoring and the Bajans were deep in trouble at 179 for seven.

Tino Best came in and stuck around for five overs in scoring one but got a delivery from off-spinner Amit Jaggernauth which bounced and turned and he was snapped up at slip by Sherwin Ganga.

A nervous-looking Roach then joined Browne and the two showed level heads to see their team to safety. Browne was bold enough to smash two fours off Khan in the third last over of the day as he ended 13 not out.

Earlier, Denesh Ramdin batted brilliantly to make a career-best 166 not out off 233 balls with 18 fours and a six.

It was his seventh first-class century and equalled his previous best score of 166 at the same venue against England in the Test Series 11 months ago. It was his second century in two weeks following his 109 not out against Guyana in Antigua last weekend.

Resuming from his unbeaten 94, he added 72 runs in two hours as T&T rattled up 115 runs in that session. The right-handed Ramdin added 60 for the eighth wicket with Dave Mohammed (34) and 73 for the ninth wicket with Amit Jaggernauth (17).