Mixed fortunes for Bajans

The New-Look Barbados team presented a mixture of exciting and enigmatic stuff yesterday.

Dale Richards, one of the seven debutants, entertained another fairsized crowd at the Windward Club ground with a series of scintillating strokes on the second day of the first-class match against South Africa 'A'.

Richards' 53, which included 11 sweetly-stroked boundaries off 92 balls in two hours' batting, was almost identically matched in terms of quality and statistics by Ryan Hinds' solid 54 made in 123 minutes from 93 balls with nine boundaries.

There was also a solid contribution at the top of the order from another first-timer Shirley Clarke, but three of those on show at this level for the first time will not want to remember their methods of dismissals.

Rondell Yearwood, Kurt Wilkinson and Dale Mason contributed two runs and survived only 13 balls among them, and each fell to what some described as 'schoolboy' strokes.

Yearwood is a capable wicket-keeper/batsman at club level, but even his most diehard fans might say he is not suited to play as a specialist No. 3 at-this level.

He managed to open his account but was soon slashing at a wide delivery he managed to snick to third slip.

The association between Richards and Hinds that yielded 80 runs in 70 minutes on either side of tea was, however, followed by a period in which bowlers were not made to work hard for their wickets.

It was a joy to watch the 24-year-old Richards. He was compact in defending and pleasing when he was finding the boundary with either spanking square-drives, slashing upper cuts or ferocious pulls.

Whenever he was in full flight, Julian Hunte, dressed in a black pants, blue jacket and gold waistcoat and proudly waving a Barbados flag, added the sounds of his conch shell.

Hunte may have been an inspiration to dozens of schoolchildren who tried to get some sort of a Mexican Wave going.

There was nothing to blow about or jump and wave when Richards, his footwork almost non-existent, was bowled attempting a loose drive off-robust fast bowler Charl Langeveldt half-hour-after tea.

Wilkinson replaced his Carlton clubmate, but looked to be in a tangle when he played around a full length delivery and was bowled by Langeveldt.

As quickly as Mason arrived, he was making his way off the ground to the disappointment of the many St. Philip supporters who came to watch their parish boy.

One will never know if the occasion made him nervous, but the casual flick to mid-wicket off left-arm spinner Robin Peterson was not typical of someone who is enjoying his best ever Division 1 season.

Three wickets, therefore, had gone for the addition of 12 runs.

Hinds was still in, but he was another one who gave his hand away after not a single bowler failed to trouble him all afternoon.

As usual, his front-foot driving was out of the top drawer and he expertly-lifted the left-arm spin of Peterson down the ground on a couple of occasions.

But, as has happened more than once, Hinds was unable to convert a half-century into a major score. Attempting to chip the medium-pace of Justin Kemp, he holed out to deep mid-on where Mfuneko Ngam took a good catch running back.

At that point, Barbados were 185 for seven, but wicket-keeper Corey Glasgow and Ian Bradshaw batted out the last hour to give Barbados a chance of overhauling the visitors' total at the end of a day which went past 6 p.m. because of three stoppages for rain.

Ngam's catch was the second notable one in the innings, the first having accounted for Clarke when Kemp made a big stretch to his right at first slip.

Ngam was also in the thick of things with the ball earlier on. Given an extended spell in which he generated pace and bounce with the new ball, he removed Yearwood and Philo Wallace after the Barbados captain took 26 balls to get off the mark.