An unbeaten 45 from Barbados skipper Joshua Drakes helped his team over the line in a low-scoring game against the Windward Islands whom they defeated by two-wickets in their second round West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Regional U19 50-over match played at the Demerara Cricket Club Ground yesterday.
The skipper, who batted the full 41.3 overs it required his team to win, grafted for his 124-ball top score which featured three fours and one six taking the fight to the Windwards who were rattled out for a measly 111 runs.
Windwards bowler Shermon Lewis snared an impressive 4-24 from nine overs, while a wicket apiece from Ryan John, Gidron Pope and Derron Hypolite were potent enough to threaten the Bajans chase.
Batting first the Windwards choked to their below-par total in 39.5 overs, hours before lunch after Matthew Jones (2-18), Chad Williams (2-18) and Neil Persaud (2-35) tore through their batting line leaving captain Roland Cato (23) as the top scorer.
Barbados got off to a horrid start when the lost their top three batters in; Lee-Germon Gaskin, Nicholas Kirton and Akil Greenidge all for ducks. Jafari Toppin (1) fell in the same bracket of batters who failed to trouble the scorers as Barbados slipped to 6-4 in 5.4 overs.
After the assault with the ball by Lewis and John, Drakes, along with Sherman Springer (14) were faced with an uphill task in steadying the innings as the lunch interval arrived. Resuming at 15 for 4 after lunch, the pair treaded cautiously adding 50 runs for the sixth wicket.
The partnership was broken when Springer was bowled by Pope, which immediately triggered the dismissals of Mathew Jones (0) and Alex Ferguson (6) at the end of the 25th over, which left them reeling at 69 for 7 the Bajans steered down the barrel of defeat with their tail-enders at the crease.
Drakes continued his assault, smashing fours and sixes despite losing his partners in clusters, he along with Tarik Shorey who was unbeaten on five, took their team to safety with approximately eight overs left to spare.
Earlier, Windwards also got off to a nightmare start when they lost majority of their batsmen for fewer than 90 runs. The skipper during his grueling knock found support from Kershaski Jno Lewis (14) and Tonis Simon (18) who offered resistance during the ordinary batting performance.
