HARPY EAGLES IN FLIGHT

The Guyana Harpy Eagles have their talons firmly entrenched in the Barbados Pride.

West Indies Under-19 pacer Isai Thorne struck twice in his opening spell to leave Barbados on the back foot, after Veerasammy Permaul and new West Indies Test recruit Kevin Sinclair led strong lower-order batting for the defending champions on the second day of their West Indies Championship clash at the Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua.

After Guyana was dismissed for a formidable 436 in their first innings, Barbados ended the day in trouble on 59-3, some 377 runs behind.

The Harpy Eagles resumed the day with the match evenly poised at 231 for five, with Sinclair unbeaten on five.

Barbados would have had high hopes of wrapping up the tail after they reaped early success when Kemar Roach dismissed Rj Mohamed for just one.

However, Sinclair together with Permaul came together in a 103-run partnership for the seventh wicket to completely swing the momentum of the match in favour of the Harpy Eagles.

Sinclair scored a breezy 72 from 94 balls inclusive of nine fours and together with Permaul, carried Guyana past the 300-mark.

And even after left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican took a return catch to dismiss Sinclair, Permaul found a worthy ally in Gudakesh Motie who struck 37 from 69 balls, with the pair adding a further 92 for the eighth wicket.

Permaul ended unbeaten on a career-best 90, before the Harpy Eagles were bowled out close to an hour after the scheduled tea break.

He faced 151 balls and struck 10 fours and three sixes.

Roach, Jason Holder and Warrican, all took two wickets apiece.

Thorne then removed opener Zachary McCaskie for eight, and newcomer Sian Brathwaite for a two-ball duck before Pride and West Indies Test captain Kraigg Brathwaite was run out for 14 in the final half-hour, and his side ended a forgettable day on 59 for three.

Elsewhere, Tion Webster defied a destructive spell from off-spinner Kenneth Dember and hit his second first-class hundred to anchor hosts Trinidad & Tobago Red Force to a 103-run, first innings lead against leaders Windward Islands Volcanoes.

Dember ended with five for 63 from 22 overs, but Webster resisted with an undefeated 107, and Red Force were bowled out for 294, replying to the Volcanoes first innings total of 191, in the feature match at the Queen’s Park Oval in the T&T capital of Port of Spain.

The wickets in successive overs of opener Johann Jeremiah for 19 and West Indies left-handed batsman Alick Athanaze for a five-ball duck to left-arm spinner Khary Pierre and West Indies pacer Jayden Seales respectively, left Volcanoes reeling on 68 for two in their second innings at the close, still 35 adrift.

At the Frank Worrell Field on the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies in Trinidad, discarded West Indies left-handed opener Kieran Powell overcame a damaging spell from Barbadian off-spinner Romario Greaves to crack his 10th first-class hundred, but second-placed Leeward Islands Hurricanes conceded a 14-run, first innings lead to the Combined Campuses & Colleges Marooners (CCC).

Powell, playing in only his second match this season, led the way with 114, but Greaves ran through the Hurricanes’ batting to end with five for 63 from 19.2 overs, and the visitors were bowled out for 259, replying to the Marooners’ first innings total of 273.

Two wickets in the final hour – one apiece to Jeremiah Louis and fellow pacer Colin Archibald – kept the Hurricanes in the match, and CCC limped to 76 for three when stumps were drawn for an overall lead of 90.
(CMC/RB)