Rashidi?Boucher’s third First Division ton and aggressive middle and lower order batting helped Super Centre Spartan to a 22-run first innings lead over TeleBarbados Carlton at Queen’s Park in their LIME?third series Division One cricket match yesterday.
Boucher’s responsible and superb 119 in 243 minutes helped the Parkites to 293 for eight in reply to Carlton’s 271 all out.
Opener Boucher’s innings was of immense value as he watched as Dadrian Forde, Nicholas Carter and Maradon Bend were dismissed with only 15 on the board.
The first sign of recovery came in a 53-run stand between Boucher and Rohan Nurse (23) for the fourth wicket before Nurse was caught in the deep with Carlton still in control with the score on 68 for four.
Boucher next shared in two important partnerships for the fifth and sixth wickets, with Reydon Toppin and skipper Jabbar Niles respectively, before he was finally caught on the long on boundary after facing 174 balls and hitting 13 fours and two sixes.
Spartan were still 73 runs but Sulieman Benn and Andre Gill attacked both the pace and spin of Carlton and pushed Spartan to the first innings lead relatively easily as they posted an eighth-wicket stand of 87.
Benn was out for 49, with six fours, just before the close, while Gill remained 53 not out after striking six beautiful boundaries from 66 balls.
Both teams have a chance of gaining another bonus point today, as Spartan require seven runs from two overs while Carlton require one wicket.
At the start of play the Parkites took ten deliveries to wrap up the visitors’ first innings for 271 after they resumed on 264 for nine. Sulieman Benn (five for 76) took his fifth wicket when he had over-week batsman Alex Bridgeman caught for 21 after resuming on 17. Kevin Earle remained not out on six.
