CAVE HILL, Barbados, CMC – Combined Campuses & Colleges were eyeing their third victory of the season, after their spin bowling triumvirate again held sway over Barbados yesterday, following career-best half-centuries from Chadwick Walton and Kevin McLean in the WICB regional four-day competition for the Headley/Weekes Trophy.
Ryan Austin, Anderson Sealy, and Kavesh Kantasingh shared five wickets to leave Barbados tottering on 167 for seven in their second innings at the close on the third day of their 13th round match at the Three Ws Oval.
Off-spinner Austin finished with two wickets for 50 runs from 17 overs, Sealy ended with two for 57 from 12 overs, and fellow left-arm spinner Kantasingh has one for 41 from 17 overs.
Dwayne Smith again entertained with five fours and five sixes in the top score so far of 87 from 79 balls in a little more than an hour-and-a-half.
Schoolboy Kraigg Brathwaite, aged 16, made a gritty 33 and Kevin Stoute was not out on 21 in another shoddy batting performance from the Barbadians.
This followed purposeful batting from Walton and McLean that carried the CCC to a first innings total of 377 and a lead of 142.
Walton, a Jamaican wicketkeeper/batsman studying law on the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies, smashed half-dozen fours and a pair of sixes in 87 from 195 balls in a little more than four hours.
McLean, an emerging young fast bowler, who played for West Indies-A in England opening match of their recent tour of the Caribbean, was struck just three fours and was unbeaten on 50 from 165 balls in 3-1/2 hours.
They added 128 for the ninth wicket before Ryan Hinds, the West Indies batting all-rounder, collected the last two wickets with his steady, if not mesmerizing left-arm spin to finish with a flattering six wickets for 89 runs from 43.1 overs.
McLean then set Barbados back early, when young opener Rashidi Boucher edged the fourth ball of the innings and Walton held a fine catch behind the stumps.
Kantasingh, opening the bowling, struck in the third over, when Hinds was caught at slip for an eight-ball duck driving loosely outside the off-stump.
Sealy then dragged the rug from under his opponents, when he bowled Kirk Edwards for nine to leave the Barbados on 24 for three.
The CCC then saw Smith and Brathwaite stem the fall of wickets and carry Barbados to 59 for three at tea before they proceeded to take their fourth-wicket stand to 90.
A smart bit of fielding from Nekoli Parris saw Brathwaite run out, and the floodgates opened for the CCC, despite Smith’s pyrotechnics.
The CCC captured four wickets – including Smith – for 23 runs in the span of 23 balls to send Barbados tumbling to 137 for six before Sealy had Barrington Yearwood caught at bat-pad in the penultimate over to cap a fine day for the CCC.
They had started from their overnight total of 271 for eight, and the pair of Walton and McLean carried them to 353 for eight at lunch.
They made a mockery of the Barbados bowling on a hard, true pitch in sunny conditions and fortified the CCC’s hold on the game before Hinds made the breakthrough in the first hour after lunch, when he bowled Walton and then trapped Austin lbw for a first-ball duck.
Neither the CCC nor the Barbadians have a chance at the Headley/Weekes Trophy which has already been decided and will be lifted by Jamaica.
