Trinidad and Tobago Red Force ended day two of their final round West Indies Four-day Regional Championship fixture against Jamaica Scorpions in total command at Sabina Park in Kingston, after restricting the opposition to 159 for nine at stumps in their first turn at the crease.
Resuming from their overnight score of 308 for seven, the pair of Terrance Hinds (79) and Khary Pierre (43) made the Scorpions toil with a 91-run stand for the eighth wicket as the Red Force eventually posted a mammoth 432 in their first innings. With ball in hand, TT off-spinner Bryan Charles then ripped the home team's batting line up to shreds as he ended the day with figures of six for 75 to give his team a resounding 273-run lead heading into the third day's play.
In the final over of the day's play, Charles claimed his sixth scalp when lower-order batsman Ojay Shields was brilliantly caught at first slip by Pierre after the TT spinner induced an outside edge. The spin pair accounted for eight of the nine Jamaica wickets, and Pierre's blinder fittingly turned out to be the last action on a totally dominant day for the fifth-placed Red Force.
Charles' other scalps were Javaughn Buchanan (ten), Justin Beckford (seven), Abhijai Mansingh (eight), skipper Peat Salmon (14) and wicket-keeper Romaine Morris (four), and the 28-year-old will fancy his chances of bettering his career-best return of six for 48 when play resumes on Friday.
Pierre ended the day with figures of two for 46, while seamer Anderson Phillip (one for 25) took the other wicket.
Earlier in the day's play, Pierre and the free-spirited Hinds clobbered the Jamaican bowling to all parts as they added to Red Force's strong first-innings total. Hinds hit a total of seven fours and five sixes in his innings as he struck a sixth First Class half-century, while Pierre hit two fours and two sixes in his innings.
When day three bowls off from 11 am, the Joshua Da Silva-led Red Force team will try to make a great push to get an outright victory.
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