Athanaze hits classy 141 to lead Volcanoes fightback

Windward Islands Volcanoes captain Alick Athanaze made his maiden first-class century, a superb 141, to lead his team to 292-8 against Guyana Harpy Eagles on the opening day of the second round of West Indies Championship four-day first-class matches.

The stylish left-hander struck 16 fours from 220 balls in a little 4 1/2 hours of controlled batsmanship to be the anchor as the home side made use on good batting conditions at the Grenada National Stadium.

In the early exchanges the Volcanoes ran into trouble, when the Harpy Eagles new ball pair of Ronsford Beaton and Nial Smith sent them sliding to 26-3 inside the first 45 minutes. Beaton made the breakthrough in the third over when he got Kimani Melius for two, and he got former captain Kavem Hodge caught behind for 14. In between, Smith got Jerlani Robinson for five.

But Athanaze was the glue that held the Volcanoes innings together and he shared three half-century stands that added West Indies batsman Sunil Ambris, shared 89 for the fifth wicket with all-rounder Justin Greaves, and 90 with allrounder Ryan John for the seventh wicket.

John was not out on 50 when play came to a close two overs after Athanaze was caught behind off Veerasammy Permaul, Ambris scored 47, and Greaves made 21.

At Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua: Barbados Pride bowled well and fielded brilliantly to dismiss Jamaica Scorpions for 140. The defending champions then batted solidly to reach 89-2 on the opening day.

Shamar Springer was the pick of the Pride bowlers, with 3-11 from 9.5 overs; left-arm spinner Camarie Boyce supported with 3-26 from 11 overs, and pacer Akeem Jordan did the early damage to collect 3-48 from 17 overs.

Scorpions slumped to 44-4 before lunch, and needed a stand of 44 between Jamie Merchant and Abhijai Mansingh. Merchant’s top score of 35 included four towering sixes while Mansingh made a composed 27.

Pride got an opening stand of 40 from left-handed opener Shayne Moseley, not out 41, and Zacharay McCaskie before two wickets in 10 balls set them back. McCaskie and Jonathan Drakes were both caught behind before Moseley and Shamarh Brooks shared and unbroken stand of 48.

At Sir Vivian Richards Stadium: Darren Bravo was unbeaten on 74 and Yannic Cariah was not out on 32, and they have so far shared 82 unbroken for the fourth wicket to stabilise the Trinidad & Tobago Red Force against Leeward Islands Hurricanes.

The visitors wobbled to 8-2 inside the first half-hour before Bravo anchored successive half-century stands with experienced Jason Mohammed and Cariah. They will resume on Thursday at 151-3.

Mohammed (34) added 74 with Bravo before he was caught behind off pacer Sheeno Berridge before Cariah (35 not out) came to the crease and blunted the Hurricanes attack in between the showers.

Due to the time lost on Wednesday, play in all three matches is scheduled to start early on Thursday. At CCG (9:50am), at SVRS (9:30am) at GNS (9:36am). LIVE ball-by-ball coverage of all matches can be seen at https://bit.ly/3xbym9a