Pacers stun Red Force as Pride stage massive win

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – West Indies seamers Miguel Cummins and Kemar Roach stunned Trinidad and Tobago Red Force with lethal spells, as Barbados Pride made a successful start to their Regional Super50 title defence with a commanding 171-run win here Tuesday.

Asked to chase 279 in the day/night Group A match at Kensington Oval, Red Force crumbled spectacularly for a disappointing 107 off 21.3 overs, undone by the homeside’s pace attack.

Cummins snatched four for 35 while Roach picked up three for 33, while medium pacer Carlos Brathwaite supported with two for 32.

Roach was superb up front with the new ball, taking three wickets in his opening spell, which sent Red Force crashing to 17 for four in the seventh over.

Sunil Narine, batting at eight, smashed an explosive 28-ball 51 but Cummins and Brathwaite combined to wreck the remainder of the innings.

Sent in earlier, Pride rallied to 278 for nine off their 50 overs, with all-rounder Kevin Stoute stroking 74 and Test batsman Roston Chase gathering exactly 50.

Windies stroke-maker Shai Hope carved out a typically elegant 47 while left-hander Jonathan Carter hit 37.

Jamaican left-arm speedster Sheldon Cottrell (3-52) and Roshon Primus (3-70) both ended with three wickets apiece while off-spinner Sunil Narine claimed two for 29.

Pride’s start was less than enterprising, however, as captain Kraigg Brathwaite nicked a push at Cottrell in the fifth over and was caught at the wicket for nine.

Stoute, however, rebuilt the innings by anchoring two successive half-century stands. Firstly, he put on 97 for the second with Hope before adding a further 67 for the third with Carter.

All told, the right-hander faced 107 balls and struck five fours and a six.

Hope looked en route to a half-century when he attempted a third reverse sweep at Narine and was taken at slip by Evin Lewis in the 24^th over.

Stoute, eyeing a maiden regional one-day hundred, then perished in the 35^th over, pulling Cottrell to Nicholas Pooran at mid-wicket.

Pride then lost their way as four wickets went down for 33 runs, leaving them with much to do on 216 for six in the 43^rd over.

Chase, who punched two fours and three sixes in a 47-ball knock, posted a crucial 55 for the seventh wicket with Ashley Nurse (19), to get Pride up to a challenging total.

Red Force were in trouble from as early as the opening over when Tion Webster drove Roach to Chase at mid-off, to depart without scoring with a single run on the board.

Roach removed the left-handed Amir Jangoo also without scoring in his next over, superbly caught by a diving Nurse at second slip and Cummins got the prized wicket of the dangerous Lewis (5), also caught by Nurse at second slip.

In the very next over, West Indies one-day vice-captain, Jason Mohammed (4), was caught at the wicket to give Roach his third scalp, and leave Red Force in disarray.

Captain Denesh Ramdin (18) and Pooran (12) stemmed the flood of wickets with a 31-run fifth wicket partnership but once both fell in the space of two balls in successive overs with no addition to the score at 48, the innings was thrust into terminal decline.

The left-handed Narine, however, played with abandon in smashing seven fours and three sixes, to get Red Force up to three figures.

But the innings – and his 40-run, last wicket stand with Shannon Gabriel (6 not out) – proved merely academic.