THE Trinidad and Tobago Red Force will be hunting their first win of the 2023 West Indies Four-Day Championships in round two against Leeward Islands Hurricanes at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua bowling off at 10 am on Wednesday.
In round one, Red Force held on for a draw against Volcanoes. Batting first, Volcanoes posted 243 with Terrance Hinds and Bryan Charles grabbing 4/72 and 4/46 respectively for Red Force.
In response, Red Force earned a 72-run lead after scoring 315 in their first innings. The trio of Amir Jangoo (86), Tion Webster (79) and Hinds (52) all cracked half centuries. The Volcanoes batsmen showed their quality in the second innings compiling 425/5 declared with opener Kimani Melius lashing 192. Charles was among the wickets again taking 2/92.
Chasing over 350 for victory, Red Force closed on 225/7 with Jason Mohammed making 79 not out and Webster scoring his second half century of the match with a knock of 58.
Opener Keagan Simmons has been brought into the Red Force squad after Vikash Mohan split his webbing in the first ball of round one. Furlonge said Mohan’s injury is a blow as the opener impressed in the build-up to the championships.
The Red Force middle and lower order did the bulk of the scoring in the first round.
Red Force coach David Furlonge said, “The top order all of them got starts. We just need them to go on from those starts now, maybe get eighties, nineties, even hundreds. We know that we bat deep in the order (with) Jangoo batting at seven then you have Hinds who is averaging 49 in regional cricket. He is batting at eight.”
Furlonge said if the top four or five batsmen could get the team to 200 then totals of 400 are possible.
Red Force are missing many of their front-line fast bowlers who are on West Indies duty in Zimbabwe or injured including Shannon Gabriel, Anderson Phillip and Jayden Seales.
Furlonge thought it was a valiant effort from his bowlers in round one. “It was a good effort on a flat wicket. Tomorrow we would access the wicket again and see (what is the best XI). Normally we would finalise our XI by today, but we having a look at the wicket.”
Hurricanes would have been disappointed not to pull off an outright win against Scorpions. Chasing 268 for victory, Scorpions just managed to hang on for a draw ending on 200/9.
In other round two matches Jamaica Scorpions and Barbados Pride will face off at the Coolidge Cricket Ground in Coolidge, Antigua and Guyana Harpy Eagles and Windward Islands Volcanoes will battle at the National Cricket Stadium, St George’s, Grenada. Red Force are second in the standings with 10.2 points behind Harpy Eagles with 20 points. Harpy Eagles were the only team to earn a victory in round one.
Volcanoes are third with 8.4 points, followed by Hurricanes with 7.4 points, Scorpions with 6.2 points and Pride with 4.8 points.
Red Force are trying to end their drought in the four-day competition having last won the title in 2006.
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