Barbados bowlers hold the key

Only one team appears to stand a chance of winning the opening round Busta Series match between Barbados and Guyana at Kensington Oval today.

A powerful Guyana batting side containing their stars of the 1970s Clive Lloyd, Rohan Kanhai, Alvin Kallicharran and Roy Fredericks would be hard-pressed to score another 356 runs in 90 overs and complete a mammoth target of 402.

This depleted Guyana team, without Carl Hooper, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan, can only concentrate on surviving for a draw when they resume this morning on 46 without loss.

The more relevant question, however, is whether Barbados' most inexperienced attack at this level for some time, can claim 10 wickets in the day and complete victory.

Their captain Philo Wallace is reasonably confident.

We have worked hard. It is not going to be as easy as in the first innings. The pitch has settled and the Guyanese batsmen have decided to put their heads down and look to bat, Wallace said.

We have to be disciplined in our bowling and we still have to play smart cricket if we want to win, but I think our chances of winning are very good.

Guyana achieved the first phase of their mission by batting out the last hour and 40 minutes without losing a wicket.

Once their left-handed openers Azeemul Haniff and Sewnarine Chattergoon both avoided bagging a pair and the early pace of their first innings tormentor Tino Best, there were very few problems in the 22 overs they faced before the close.

Not many will give Guyana a chance of winning, but their manager Pat Legall is not ruling out any possibility.

We will try our best. We have 90 overs to get 350-odd runs. We will try and see how far we can go, he said. If we have wickets in hand after tea and we have about 120 or 130 to get, we will make the game exciting.

Legall was speaking with the knowledge that most of his top order batsmen failed miserably two days ago.

We know we didn't play well in the first innings, but this is a different pitch now, the former Guyana fast bowler said.

It is hardly doing anything. I don't think the Barbados bowlers will get the same movement as in the first innings. Everything has died out now. The pitch is playing slow and I think we stand a good chance.

Having started the day with the advantage and 188 runs to the good with eight wickets in hand, Barbados were never under any pressure.

Everyone contributed to the effort with the bat and by tea their overall lead was 385. By then, most of those in the Kensington Stand expected a declaration, but Wallace delayed it until 13 minutes after the interval.

Four-hundred was the team target. We had set it from this (yesterday) morning, the captain said.

People on the outside don't know what the team plan is. They have to be patient with our cricket and accept the decisions made by the people who are playing the cricket.

Barbados enjoyed a productive first session in which they scored 95 runs and lost two wickets.

Floyd Reifer, out for a fourth-ball duck in the first innings when he attracted a fine off-break, was the main aggressor in association with the exciting debutant, Dwayne Smith.

Reifer's 62 from 109 balls included several authentic strokes. He was most devastating in a brief period against fast bowlers Reon King and Kevin Darlington.

King, still nowhere near his best following a lay-off because of a hernia problem, was savagely banged through the covers and sweetly spanked square of the wicket. When Darlington replaced King, he was promptly cut and flicked for boundaries.

Kurt Wilkinson, rampant in the first innings, was forced to play second fiddle to Reifer during a third-wicket stand of 88 with Reifer.

The Guyanese had the chance to remove Wilkinson early in the day, but wicket-keeper Azib Ali Hanif missed a straightforward stumping off Lennox Cush.

Little Hanif showed some ability as a late-order batsman on Saturday, but as a keeper, he was constantly sloppy in both innings and his miss of Wilkinson was just one of several blemishes.

Wilkinson, however, did not profit much and his dismissal made way for Smith, whose strokeplay is always fun to watch. Having perished to a loose shot in the first innings, he was much more selective, but still positive in his approach.

By lunch, taken at 220 for four, Barbados had also lost Reifer, his attempted pull off McGarrell providing a top-edged catch at backward square-leg.

It was one of five wickets for the left-armer who sent down as many as 41 overs. Between lunch and tea, Guyana depended exclusively on their slower bowlers to stem the flow of runs, to the extent that King and Darlington were not used in the session.

There was a relatively good containing period by the Guyanese in the first hour after lunch in which Smith was a victim of unfortunate circumstances. In forcing McGarrell down to long-off, he stepped on his stumps and was a rare hit wicket casualty.

While the early part after lunch lacked fireworks, the scoreboard kept moving along with useful contributions from Courtney Browne (31), Ian Bradshaw (21), Ryan Austin (25 not out) and Sulieman Benn (23).