TT Red Force crashed to an eight-wicket defeat on day three of their West Indies Four-day Championship round four match against Barbados Pride at the Queen's Park Oval, St Clair on Friday.
The Red Force ended day two on 100 for three with captain Joshua Da Silva (17) and Amir Jangoo (30) the overnight batsmen. Still trailing Barbados by seven runs at that stage, the overnight pair held the key for Red Force to bat their way back into the game and post a potentially challenging target for the visitors.
Coach David Furlonge said TT were looking to get a score in the region of 300 after erasing the 107-run deficit.
However, a turning wicket, which also had inconsistent bounce, coupled with a nagging line and length from left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican (six for 31) and seamer Jason Holder (four for 23), proved to be the home team's undoing. The overnight score quickly turned to 124 all out inside the first hour of play, as the remaining seven Red Force wickets tumbled in rapid succession for the addition of just 24 runs in what Furlonge described as a disappointing batting effort.
Da Silva added just six to his overnight score before he edged a Warrican delivery to wicket-keeper Shane Dowrich as Red Force slipped to 107 for four in the fourth over of the day.
New batsman Tion Webster was dismissed off the very next ball when he was trapped lbw by Warrican as the hosts fell to 107 for five.
Jangoo, who made an impressive 93 in the first innings when the hosts were bowled out for 172, got to 35 before the lanky Holder trapped him on the crease, to leave TT tottering at 111 for six.
Holder and Warrican made light work of the TT tail as Imran Khan (duck), Khary Pierre (four), Anderson Phillip (duck) and Bryan Charles (one) were all removed cheaply as the hosts were bundled over quite meekly.
Warrican claimed his fifth wicket of the innings when Zachary McCaskie took a sharp catch at silly mid-off to see the back of Khan. The wily slow bowler then got his six-for when Phillip was bowled after getting a bottom edge onto his stumps.
Holder backed up his fine first-innings return of four for 47, and Charles' scalp saw him claiming his second four-wicket haul of the contest as the hosts' sorry batting performance came to an end.
"We know the importance of batting and we always talk about it. We didn't get good starts in this game again," Furlonge told Newsday.
"I don't want to put it down to having a bad game. The shot selection from our batsmen was poor, especially in the first innings. When you make 170 in the first innings, you put yourself under pressure."
Furlonge said he has already had a heart-to-heart with his batsmen, and he believes Red Force will bounce back in their last two matches, beginning with their next match against the Combined Campuses and Colleges which bowls off on April 10.
"We talked about the mode of dismissals. We talked about batsmen playing around the ball instead of playing straight at the swinging ball. There are a couple of things we will work on over the next couple o
