By E. Glenford Prescott
Tournament leaders Dominica and 2014 joint defending champions Grenada were locked in an interesting battle at the main Arnos Vale Playing Field on day one of the second round of competition in the 2015 senior Windward Islands tournament.
When play ended Saturday after a very absorbing day in a low-scoring encounter, Dominica were 68/2 — a lead of 107 with 8 wickets in hand. The not out batsmen were Kavem Hodge on 14 and Kevin James on 11.
The batsmen out were Tyrone Theophile 10 and Jelarni Robinson 24.
SCORES: Dominca 152 & 68/2, Grenada 116/9 dec.
Winning the toss and electing to bat, Dominica were in early trouble when Theophile was out first ball LBW to Josh Thomas. They never truly got out of that but were helped along by some crucial low order runs.
After seeing Robinson (17) and Hodge (17) putting together a 31 run second wicket partnership the Dominicans ran into more problems to be 59/6. But it was left to the work of Kershaki John Lewis (41), Mervin Mathew (24) and Oscar George 20 to reach their eventual target.
Offspinner Deron Hypolite led the bowling with 3/25 while seamer Craig Phillip took 3/28 and Thomas 2/27 for Grenada.
Grenada, bubbly and buoyant with their work in the field, looked to be on top of things when captain Devon Smith and Herron Campbell had negotiated the Dominica early thrust to take the total into the twenties. However, with the score on 22, Smith (14) was adjudged LBW to Liam Sebastien — a decision which the batsman appeared disappointment with. A recovery of some sorts relative to the match scores saw a 38 run third wicket partnership between Campbell and Andre Fletcher (20) took the score to 63/3 before Fletcher went off he bowling of Sebastien. Emmanuel Stewart, who was forced to leave the field when he was struck on the knee while fielding at shortleg, was bowled first ball by Sebastien to make it 63/4. All this time Campbell battled his way through the carnage dispatching the bad balls and defending resolutely on a pitch offering bounce and turn. He was eventually out LBW to Shane Shillingford from one that kept a bit low for 51 with the score 106/8. He struck 6 fours.
The innings came to a close shortly after when the Grenadians, in an effort to keep the Domincans from getting another bowling point, declared at 116/9.
Sebastien finished with 6/32 and Shllingford 2/34.
Batting a second time with a lead of 36 Dominica quickly went about their second innings scoring at nearly 5 runs an over.