Nurse, Benn bowl Barbados into semis with innings win

Barbados thoroughly dominated against bottom-placed Leeward Islands in St Kitts to complete an innings win on the final morning and enter the semi-finals. Offspinner Ashley Nurse took six wickets in the first innings and ten in the game, the first time he'd done either.

Leewards were dismissed for 201 after choosing to bat, with Nurse running though through the middle and lower orders. At 100 for 2, Leewards were in a strong position but could not capitalise on it. Nurse provided the breakthrough by removing Devon Thomas for 34 and Leewards lost wickets regularly thereafter. Their captain Sylvester Joseph made 65 at No. 4 and there was an unbeaten fifty from No. 7 Tonito Willett, but Nurse chipped away the other end.

Barbados crawled to 88 for 4 in reply but recovered superbly with a double-century stand between opener Kraigg Brathwaite and allrounder Kevin Stoute. Brathwaite held one end up for almost nine hours, facing 443 balls for his highest first-class score of 165 while Stoute's 114 came off 257 deliveries in over five hours. Barbados declared late on day three as soon as Brathwaite fell at 381 for 6 for a lead of 180.

Sulieman Benn, the left-arm spinner, struck thrice to reduce Leewards to 40 for 4 by stumps, and completed the demolition with three more wickets on the last morning along with Nurse, who added four more to his tally. Wicketkeeper Jahmar Hamilton was the only one to make a fifty as Leewards lasted 40.4 overs to be bowled out for 149.

Four wickets in each innings from left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul led Guyana to victory over Combined Campuses and Colleges at Providence Stadium in a low-scoring game. The match made no difference to the standings as both sides are out of contention for a semi-final berth.

Ryan Austin and Raymon Reifer had Guyana struggling on 131 for 5 after CCC chose to bowl, but the home side were revived by Assad Fudadin's 87 at the top of the order. Fudadin received support from Anthony Bramble (37) but Guyana suffered a collapse after moving to 222 for 5. Nekoli Parris claimed four wickets for nine runs to end the innings at 231.

Ronsford Beaton and Permaul led Guyana's riposte, routing CCC for 167 with no batsman making more than 40 after the visitors had added 40 for the opening partnership. Guyana did not last too long in their second innings, with Parris, Austin and Akeem Dewar chipping in with three strikes each to dismiss them for 175.

A target of 240 was to prove beyond CCC who were reduced to 121 for 7 at one stage before Kevin McClean carried them to 193 but could not prevent defeat.