ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad, CMC – Another resilient, lower-order knock from Rayad Emrit brought Trinidad & Tobago back to life, and allowed them to capture first innings points in the WICB Regional first-class championship against Combined Campuses & Colleges yesterday.
But Kyle Corbin stroked a purposeful 53, as the CCC reached 135 for five in their second innings at the close on the second day of their second round match at the UWI Sports & Physical Education Complex.
Emrit, whose 97 in the opening match against Barbados similarly ushered T&T to first innings points, had finished not out on 26, as T&T, replying to the CCC’s modest first innings total of 131, were dismissed for 164 on another topsy-turvy day in the low-scoring match.
Daren Ganga hit the top score of 32 for the home team and Justin Guillen made 27, but no other batsman passed 20.
Kevin McClean was the pick of the CCC bowlers with four wickets for 41 runs from 15.4 overs, and Raymon Reifer took four for 42 from seven overs.
Shannon Gabriel then bowled Romel Currency for five to setback the CCC early in their second innings before the visitors’ captain Omar Phillips was run out for 19.
CCC were 37 for two, but Corbin found Reifer a steady ally at the other end, and they added 56 for the third wicket.
But Emrit had Reifer caught behind for 19, Gabriel trapped Nkrumah Bonner lbw for 12, and Amit Jaggernauth had Corbin caught behind in the closing stages to give Denesh Ramdin his ninth dismissal for the match to leave the contest at a delicate stage.
Earlier, McClean and Reifer led a CCC fightback, with some steady fast-medium bowling.
Gaining appreciable bounce and movement from the pitch, T&T were soon scrambling on 112 for seven, after they had resumed from their overnight 45 for two.
McClean made the breakthrough, when he had Guillen caught at slip in the first half-hour, but Ganga and Aneil Kanhai managed to defy the CCC bowlers for close to 45 minutes.
CCC newcomer Carlos Brathwaite had Kanhai caught behind for 15, and this triggered a collapse that saw Reifer claim Ramdin caught behind for three, Imran Khan bowled for the same score, and Ganga lbw even before T&T could pass the first innings target.
T&T uttered a huge sigh of relief, when Dave Mohammed and Emrit limped them over the threshold, as the home team’s tail wagged vigorously to give them a lead.