March 30 marked the start of Sir Garry Sobers' exceptional Test career in 1954 and its end exactly 20 years later.
Last Friday was 20 years since Brian Lara's 375 against England at the Antigua Recreation Ground eclipsed Sobers' Test record score of 36 years. On June 6 that year, Lara proceeded to another unimaginable epic, 501 unbeaten for his English county Warwickshire against Durham; it remains the first-class game's distant summit.
Port of Spain, Trinidad, CMC – West Indies A pacer Delorn Johnson produced a sharp, late burst, to rock Trinidad and Tobago and give Windward Islands the advantage on the opening day of their Headley/Weekes Trophy semi-final here Saturday.
The left-armer finished with finished with two for ten as T&T staggered to the close on 36 for three, still 212 runs adrift of first innings lead in the crucial contest at Queen’s Park Oval.
Left-arm fast bowler Sheldon Cottrell grabbed three for 28 from 8.3 overs, leg-spinner Damion Jacobs bagged three for 58 from 21 overs and Dave Bernard Jr took two for 32 from nine overs, as the Barbadians were dismissed for 245 in their first innings about an hour after tea on the opening day at Kensington Oval.
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – Combined Campuses & Colleges may have failed to make the semi-finals of the Regional 4-Day Tournament, but they produced the top batsman, bowler and fielder following the preliminary rounds.
Shacaya Thomas, Ryan Austin and Kyle Corbin headed the respective lists after the first seven rounds of the Tournament.
Thomas, a pugnacious, 25-year-old opener from St. Catherine in Jamaica, finished with an aggregate of 548 from 12 innings in six matches at an average of 45.66.
He struck two hundreds, including his maiden of 176 against Guyana in the fourth round on “home soil” at the Three Ws Oval in Barbados.
Austin, the vibrant, 32-year-old off-spinner, born in Trinidad and raised in Barbados, collected 33 wickets from 258.4 overs in six matches at a miserly 17.57 runs apiece.
During the season, the lanky Austin became the third bowler to capture 300 wickets in the R4D behind retired Guyanese leg-spinner Mahendra Nagamootoo and fellow off-spinner Shane Shillingford from Windward Islands.
Corbin gave evidence throughout the season that he has one of the safest pairs of hands, grabbing 22 catches, many of them thanks to Austin close to the wicket.
The top wicketkeeper during the preliminary rounds was Windwards’ Lindon James. He had 25 dismissals, comprising 22 catches and three stumpings.
Multi-camera webcasts of Regional 4-Day semi-finals
Fri, Apr 18, '14
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – Both webcasts of the semi-finals in the Regional 4-Day Tournament, starting on Saturday, will benefit from enhanced video production.
Viewers around the World will be able to enjoy multi-camera coverage of the matches on the West Indies Cricket Board’s website, www.windiescricket.com.
“We’re very excited about this initiative,” said WICB Marketing & Communications Manager Imran Khan.
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – This weekend’s semi-finals in the Regional 4-Day Tournament can further define the season for all four teams taking part.
Barbados will have home advantage and will put their reputation of being regional champions for the second straight year on the chopping block at Kensington Oval in Barbados, where they face a Jamaica side looking to put a shaky season behind them.
Trinidad & Tobago will be aiming to put aside the disappointment of narrowly missing out on their first R4D title in seven years, when they meet a rested, but plucky Windward Islands side at Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad.
The four teams are playing for a place in the Final, where the winner will be awarded the George Headley/Everton Weekes Trophy.
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