PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Test left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican and former West Indies captain Jason Holder carved up the batting of hosts Trinidad & Tobago Red Force and set up Barbados Pride for an eight-win in the West Indies Championship yesterday.
Warrican was the most successful Pride bowler with six for 31 from 17 overs, and Holder supported with four for 23 from 12.1 overs with his medium fast bowling, and Red Force were bowled out for 124 in their second innings less than an hour after the scheduled start on the third day of the contest at Queen’s Park Oval.
Left-hander Amir Jangoo added only five to his overnight score before he fell to Holder for 35, and Red Force captain Joshua Da Silva, the West Indies wicketkeeper-batsman, added six before Warrican removed him – and none of the other batsmen that appeared on the day reached 10.
Pride frittered away two cheap wickets to left-arm spinner Khary Pierre chasing 20 to win, but their first innings batting hero Jonathan Drakes, not out on 14, and West Indies Test captain Kraigg Brathwaite, not out on five, got them over the finish line.
Drakes formalised the result about half-hour before the scheduled lunch interval when he lofted Pierre to straight long-off for four, and Pride will earn a massive boost in points after such a lopsided win against their arch-rivals.
Starting the day on 100 for three, Red Force endured a major setback in their effort to resist when Da Silva was caught behind off Warrican for 23, and Tion Webster, a century-maker this season, was lbw to the same bowler for a duck next ball.
Red Force were 107 for five, and they lost their last five wickets for 17 in the span of 41 balls in a tame surrender to the disciplined, if not threatening bowling of Warrican and Holder.
Pride face hosts Leeward Islands Hurricanes in the sixth round, starting on April 10 at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground in Antigua, and Red Force will remain at home and meet hosts Combined Campuses & Colleges Marooners at Frank Worrell Field on the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies.
