THE BARBADOS Pride will have the services of West Indies all-rounder Roston Chase when they face defending champions Trinidad & Tobago Red Force in the first semifinal of the Regional Super50 tomorrow.
Chase was previously unavailable, as he was part of the West Indies squad that played England in the just-concluded One-Day International and T20I series which ended on Sunday.
While Chase’s addition will be welcomed, Barbados will be without their captain Kyle Mayers as well as Kadeem Clarke, who have been granted leave to take part in the upcoming Abu Dhabi T10 tournament.
“The national selection panel has confirmed that Roston Chase and Shian Brathwaite will join the Barbados Pride squad as replacement players for Kadeem Alleyne and Kyle Mayers respectively,” the Barbados Cricket Association stated in a press release yesterday.
LEFT-ARM SPINNER Hasan Murad bagged a hat trick as Bangladesh completely dominated the second and final day of their warmup match against a West Indies Select XI, which predictably ended in a draw yesterday.
Resuming the day on five for one, only 25 overs were possible due to persistent showers at the Coolidge Cricket Ground.
Only three Select XI batsmen made it into double figures as they ended the day on 87 for nine from 27 overs in reply to Bangladesh’s opening-day score of 253 for seven declared.
With the match meandering to a draw, Murad sparked wild celebrations when he dismissed Daniel Beckford, Navin Bidaisee and Chaim Holder with the final three deliveries of the match.
I hate learning. In the wider educational sense, I understand it has its benefits. The pen being mightier than the sword and all that. But in a cricket context, it is code for low-stakes cricket.
This was true for the ODI series, where a sub-strength England took on a West Indies side who hadn't qualified for the Champions Trophy and duly took their beating. But it shouldn't have been the case for the T20 series, where the West Indies are a cohesive, exciting cricket team taking on an England side boosted by the return of a white-ball genius in Jos Buttler and sporting young talents like Jacob Bethell. This was set to be a lot of fun.
But forget Phil Salt and Akeal Hosein for a second. Because the fundamental takeaway from this series is an administrative one. Don't mess with timings. The 4pm starts, designed to better suit a UK TV audience, were a disaster, creating a double disadvantage for the team batting first, with the wickets being at their worst under the afternoon sun, before dew settles in the evening making the pitch good for batting and the ball slippery for bowling. No team won a match on this tour after losing the toss.
After the deciding ODI, Liam Livingstone said he'd never played a match where conditions had altered so much from one innings to the next. "It's no excuse," he said to remain professional. "But even if we'd got 350 I don't think it'd have been enough," he added to say what he really meant.
Left-arm seamer Obed McCoy has been added to the 15-man squad for the West Indies Senior Men’s T20I squad as a replacement for medium-pacer Matthew Forde for the remainder of the five-match T20I series against England in Saint Lucia.
Forde, named Player of the Series in the One Day International leg of the tour, where the West Indies secured a series win, sustained a left thigh injury during training on Wednesday 13 November, at the Daren Sammy Cricket Stadium. The 22-year-old Forde will continue to be monitored by the medical team as he works toward a full recovery.
Win the toss, win the match - win the series. Jos Buttler's third correct call of the T20I series resulted in yet another successful chase, as England beat West Indies by three wickets at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground to take an unassailable 3-0 lead.
This, however, was the toughest ask, despite a target of 146 being the lowest of the three so far. Once again, West Indies scrapped to a respectable total from a dire position of 37 for 5. Saqib Mahmood took 3 for 17, doing as he has done in bossing the powerplay, before Jamie Overton gutted the middle order with 3 for 20 after Rovman Powell's 54 and 30 from Romario Shepherd rebuilt from the wreckage.
But Akeal Hosein's 4 for 22 kept West Indies in the hunt right to the end. Sam Curran's 41 off 26, along with a run-a-ball 32 from Will Jacks had just kept England on course. Liam Livingstone's 39 removed what jeopardy there was.
Livingstone was lucky to be out there long enough to have that impact, having been dropped three times. The first, on 6, was the easiest - Nicholas Pooran shelling a top-edged hook off Alzarri Joseph, returning from his two-match suspension as one of three changes.
