BASSETERRE, St Kitts, CMC – Left-arm spinner Kavesh Kantasingh claimed match figures of 10 for 94 to engineer Trinidad and Tobago’s nine-wicket win over hapless Leeward Islands, 15 minutes before tea on the second day of their Regional Four-Day match here yesterday.
Playing in only his third first class match for his native T&T following a long stint with Combined Campuses and Colleges, Kantasingh picked up six for 77 in the Leewards’ second innings as the hosts fell for 158 all out.
Set 68 for victory, T&T cruised to their target for the loss of Evin Lewis for one, with Justin Guillen stroking a cameo, unbeaten 47 and Marlon Barclay finishing on 20 not out.
The win for T&T propelled them to 46 points and into the semi-finals of the competition beginning next weekend.
After T&T were bowled out without adding to their overnight 172 for nine, Kantasingh set about dismantling the Leewards innings, as he had done in the first innings.
Trailing by 91 on first innings, the Leewards fared no better the second time around and only Austin Richards, who top-scored with 44, tail-ender Gavin Tonge with 33, and Devon Thomas, 27, showed any enterprise.
West Indies opener Kieran Powell completed a miserable match when he tried to cut one from pacer Shannon Gabriel that was too close to him, and edged to Imran Khan at third slip to depart for nine with the score on 18 in the fifth over of the innings.
His opening parter Javia Liburd followed for 16 with the score on 36 when he mis-read a Kantasingh googly and was trapped lbw.
When captain Gavin Williams edged the very next ball to Jason Mohammed at slip, the Leewards seemed set to collapse but Richards and Thomas counter-attacked in a lively partnership of 46 for the fourth wicket.
Richards struck seven fours off 67 balls in 95 minutes at the crease while Thomas counted three boundaries in his 34-ball knock.
