KRISHNAN HURDLE at long last found the mental and abdominal fortitude, and collected his second Division 1 hundred to lead TeleBarbados Carlton to first innings and full batting points against Banks yesterday.
Hurdle struck eight fours and four sixes in a classy, undefeated 108 from 156 balls in a shade over 3 ½ hours to anchor Carlton to 302 for eight, replying to Banks’ first innings total of 248, when bad light stopped play four overs early.
Anyone seeing Hurdle bat this season has commented on his obvious class, and his ability to spend long periods at the crease.
He however, failed to transform several starts into hundreds, much to the annoyance of the Carlton faithful.
This was until he drove his 144th ball from Chad Simmons to extra-cover for a single to reach the milestone prompting a relieved jump for joy from the batsman, and loud cheers from the home fans.
It was an innings that should have overwhelmed national selector Winston Reid, watching from the patio of the Banks side of the new players enclosure at the Black Rock ground.
Reid should have found two others similarly impressive – lanky fast bowling all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite had reduced the home team to 79 for three before Kevin Ramsay gave Carlton the early impetus for a revival.
Brathwaite finished with three wickets for 52 runs from 15 overs. He bowled with genuine fire, and generated steepling bounce from a typically hard, true Carlton pitch.
Several of them were made uncomfortable, either having to dodge missiles whizzing past their ears, or shake fingers that were pinned to the handle of the bat.
Ramsay smote ten fours and one six in 82 from 122 balls in just over 2 ½ hours, and added 131 for the fourth wicket with Hurdle.
He too, should have celebrated a hundred, but he was caught at short cover moving down to drive a delivery from Simmons, which triggered a Carlton collapse that saw three wickets fall for eight runs in the space of 18 deliveries which sent the hosts spiralling to 218 for six.
Hurdle battled through it all, even surviving a difficult, high chance on 76 to point fielder Sherwin Campbell, the former Barbados captain and West Indies opener, off Simmons, who was the most successful Banks bowler with four for 80 from 18 overs.
