Spinners give Windwards the edge

An eventful day in Grenada, where Barbados were locked in a keen contest with Windward Islands, who fought back well to end the first day with a slight edge. Ryan Hinds top scored with 89 but five other batsmen who reached double figures failed to covert their scores into something substantial as Barbados squandered a dominant position of 170 for 2 to end up at 305 for 7 by stumps.

Hinds batted for three hours and struck 13 boundaries in a solid knock that lasted 135 balls - he also reached 5000 first-class runs - and was well supported in a 115-run third-wicket stand with Jonathan Carter, who made 52. Their team got off to a bad start, losing captain Jason Haynes for a duck, after being asked to bat first. However, two fruitful partnerships followed - Hinds added 51 with opener Dale Richards (37) and Barbados had recovered well. However, both Hinds and Carter fell to the legspinner Raul Lewis within the space of 21 runs and appeared confounded with the decisions given against them. Dwayne Smith then made 36, and wicketkeeper Patrick Browne contributed 30 but both gave away their wickets after looking set. Five of the seven Barbados wickets fell to spinners, with the offspinner Shane Shillingford making good use of the pitch to extract turn and bounce to pick up three.

Jamaica took two wickets towards the end of play to seize the initiative from Trinidad and Tobago - who were sitting pretty at 107 for 1 after being put in - on a rain-affected first day in Port of Spain. Darren Ganga, the T&T captain, and the opener Justin Guillen helped the side recover from the early loss of Adrian Barath, who as caught behind for 0 when he prodded at an away-swinger from Andre Russell, and added 106 off 235 balls for the second wicket. Ganga survived two close calls - a missed run-out opportunity and an appeal for caught behind - on his way to 57, while Guillen was the more fluent of the two, smashing the legspinner Odean Brown over long-on for six after lunch on his way to 48.

The Jamaican bowlers struggled to unsettle the pair, but the medium-pacer David Bernard finally managed to find the outside edge off Guillen's bat to have him caught at slip by captain Tamar Lambert. With the dip in scoring after the loss of a wicket came the surrender of momentum which cost T&T dearly. As they limped to 123 for 2, Lendl Simmons was trapped lbw by Brown while offering no stroke, and Ganga followed immediately, misreading an inswinger from Bernard to find his stumps pegged back. Darren Bravo and Sherwin Ganga saw them through to stumps and T&T's progress on the second day will hinge largely on the current partnership.

Another day of squandered opportunities in Bridgetown, where seven Combined Campuses and Colleges batsmen got to double figures but failed to reach a half-century to leave their team struggling at 262 for 8 against Guyana. The medium-pacer Brandon Bess took three wickets, and his new-ball partner Esuan Crandon two, as Guyana succeeded in preventing CCC from consolidating threatening partnerships.

Being asked to bat, the CCC openers Romel Currency and Simon Jackson, who top scored with 45, added 60. The Guyana bowlers conceded many extras, 18 of them by way of no-balls, but once the first wicket was taken - Currency caught behind off Bess - they fell into rhythm. CCC were looking comfortable at 101, but they lost three wickets for 40, incuding Jackson, who was caught behind off legspinner Davendra Bishu. Floyd Reifer and Chadwick Walton lent some stability to the innings, adding 69 for the fifth wicket, but once that stand was broken by Bess things went downhill for CCC. They lost four wickets for 52 before the day drew to a close.