Sugar-caned

If there were a crime called cricket brutality, Barbados cricketers would be wanted men this morning. And most likely, they would be charged, convicted and given the maximum sentence.

For the second day running, West Indies 'B', a team comprising reserve players from around the Caribbean, were battered, bruised and beaten into submission.

The youngsters spent the first half of the day constantly retrieving balls from the boundary as Barbados sped to the highest total of the season with the help of Ryan Hinds maiden first-class hundred and some big-hitting from a few others.

The lashes were enough to deflate them, and, for the second half of the day, the West Indies 'B' team went through even more misery in losing all but one of their first innings wickets.

They now trail by the small matter of 407 runs.

No team has had it so rough during the season and it does not take a rocket scientist to predict that Barbados will complete the most emphatic victory of the tournament sometime today or early tomorrow.

It will not get them to the semifinals of the Busta International Shield unless the Windwards Islands secure first innings points in a drawn match against Trinidad and Tobago. The progress by the Windwards yesterday, however, will offer some encouragement to Sherwin Campbell's men.

Having scored more than 400 against Guyana in the previous series, West Indies 'B' were expected to give a good showing, but they were undermined principally by left-armers Sulieman Benn and Pedro Collins after early defiance from Krishna Arjune and confident strokeplay from Donovan Pagon.

Benn followed up his five-wicket haul in Anguilla with a similar effort, while Collins took three wickets, one with the finest ball of the day that shattered the stumps of Antonio Mayers, one of the four Barbadians in the West Indies 'B' team.

Roland Holder, the most experienced of them, fell to one of the most disappointing strokes, a cross-batted swing that found him leg-before for 27.

Benn also removed Pagon, the century-maker on debut last week who was struck low on the boot to a faster ball.

Pagon had shown some enterprise by swinging Benn for a six over backward square-leg, but his downfall was at the start of a slide in which seven wickets fell for 64 runs.

Even the most die-hard Barbados supporter might have felt sorry for the West Indies 'B' team.

The batting just did not click yesterday and their bowling attack is clearly not up to the standard you would expect to see in a firstclass match.

The onslaught of the previous day extended until early into the afternoon session when Barbados finally declared after reaching the second 500 of the season.

Ryan Hinds, 87 at the start, duly completed a long-overdue first-class century in his 31th first-class match and 18th at the regional level. The Barbados vice-captain went on to make 166 off 246 balls, an innings that he will cherish for some time.

I thought that it came at a very vital stage. This is my fourth season and it was very important that I got a hundred under my belt, the 21- year-old West Indies recruit said. I was very patient. Thank God I had a chance to make it today. The support was good. Floyd (Reifer) and Kurt (Wilkinson) kept me going. Apart from Hinds' 100, following those of Campbell and Wilkinson on the opening day, there were halfcenturies from Reifer and Courtney Browne yesterday that contributed to Barbados' cause against a very weak bowling attack. One might want to say that, but at the end of the day, this is cricket we are playing and I thought that it was an important 100, Hinds said. I have been working very hard in the nets. Most of the guys have been trying to help me and I am very thankful for it. Hinds arrived at his century 20 minutes into the day and would soon launch into Reon Griffith, cracking the Guyanese fast bowler for three boundaries in an over. One of those was a disdainful straight hit that typified the confidence of the left-hander, whose innings included 17 fours and a six that was carted over mid-wicket off off-spinner Chaka Hodge. That set the pattern for the mayhem that followed. There was only one other six in the morning session, coming from Reifer, who hoisted Hodge back over his head. The scoreboard ticked over to the extent that the first session yielded 132 runs, but the fireworks were reserved for the brief period after lunch, when many spectators might have been expecting a declaration at 481 for five. Hinds and Browne were still together and Browne exploded with awesome venom after the break. He needed only a few deliveries to move from eight to 52 not out, his rapid advance highlighted by four beefy sixes, including three in succession from Vishal Arjune. The 'keeper's half-century came from only 43 balls. After Hinds was well caught by fellow Barbadian Antonio Mayers on the mid-wicket fence, Benn came out and clobbered three sixes off four balls.