Trinidad and Leewards play out tame draw

Leeward Islands 171 and 131 for 3 (Richards 61, Joseph 54*) drew with Trinidad and Tobago 271 (Ganga 63, Kelly 62, Cornwall 5-54)
Scorecard

Austin Richards and Sylvester Joseph featured in a 105-run third-wicket partnership to guide the Leeward Islands to a tame draw on the final day of their second round Carib Beer series match against Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) at Ronald Webster Park.

Facing a deficit of 103 runs after T&T had responded with 274 to the Leewards first innings of 171, they lost Shane Jeffers (0) and Runako Morton (10) very early on to leave them in some difficulty at 26 for 2.

But Joseph (54 not out) and Richards (61) took them to safety with some resolute batting, playing the bowling on merit in stark contrast to their first innings approach. The Leewards first lost Jeffers, who failed to keep down a back foot stroke off Richard Kelly and presented Lendl Simmons at short cover with a simple catch. His replacement, Morton, seemed in a hurry, looking to force the pace, and his indiscretion saw him chase a wide delivery from Emrit, to be caught behind.

Richards and Joseph batted patiently against the varied T&T attack and although the spin of Dave Mohammed, Sherwin Ganga and Samuel Badree occasionally troubled Richards in particular, they held firm. Richards was eventually caught at the wicket off Badree to leave the Leewards at 131 for 3. He struck two boundaries and faced 219 balls. Joseph was more aggressive and reached his fifty off just 67 balls, hitting four boundaries in the process. Tonito Willett (0 not out) joined Joseph, but the match was called off just after 4.30 pm.

Earlier, T&T, who had resumed from their overnight 240 for 7, added a further 34 runs for the remaining three wickets as they sought some quick runs. Gibran Mohammed carried his overnight unbeaten 28 to 39, while Rayad Emrit (10) pushed his score up to 20. Both batsmen, along with Dave Mohammed (1), fell to Wilden Cornwall, who finished with 5 for 54. Daren Ganga was named Man-of-the-Match for his top-score of 63 in his team's innings.