Port of Spain, Trinidad, CMC – Former West Indies youth off-spinner Sunil Narine and National middle-order batsman Sherwin Ganga were the leading performers as a specially arranged Trinidad and Tobago four-day trial match yesterday.
On the opening day of the contest at the National Cricket Centre in Couva, Narine, playing for the Samuel Badree X1 and who was a member of the T&T team which took part in the IPL Twenty20 tournament in India in October, bagged five wickets for 69 runs from 29 overs.
His effort helped dismiss Amit Jaggernauth’s X1 for a modest 209 in 76.4 overs.
Narine was well supported by leg-spinner Badree with two for 17 and left-arm spinner Magnum Nanan (2-23).
The left-handed Ganga top-scored for the Jaggernauth X1 with a fluent 69, which came off 174 balls off 189 minutes and was laced with eight boundaries.
Justin Guillen contributed 37 with five fours and former T&T and West Indies youth captain Tishan Maraj made 23.
In response, Badree’s X1 reached 54 for one off 11 overs, with opening batsman William Perkins hitting an unbeaten 35, compiled in 50 minutes off 36 balls, including six fours and one six.
Rayad Emrit (1-11) has taken the only wicket to fall.
The match, to help select T&T’s team for the 2010 West Indies first-class season, continues today.
When the new-look WICB Regional Four-Day competition starts on January 8 with three matches in Jamaica, T&T will be facing Combined Campuses and Colleges, while Barbados play the Leeward Islands and champions Jamaica play the Windward Islands.