Despite the loss of the entire first session, YMPC made rapid progress to be 161-4 after 37 overs in their battle with fellow relegation-threatened LIME yesterday.
Only 37 overs were possible after a persistent drizzle held up play for nearly three hours before LIME’s captain Brian Johnson won the toss and invited the home team to bat in improving weather conditions.
The hosts’ opening pair of Steve Blackett (34) and Jeremy Brathwaite (31), maintaining their prolific form from the previous series, reeled off a volley of exciting boundaries in posting 62 for the first wicket.
Then, in an unusual occurrence, both were stumped by ’keeper Cyprian Payne in successive overs.
West Indies Twenty20 player Ashley Nurse finally gained the satisfaction of taking Blackett’s wicket after the elegant right-hander had twice been dropped in the slips in his first two overs with the new ball.
Brathwaite who was also stumped for 91 in the previous match, suffered the same fate after being left down the track by left-arm spinner Dario Cummins (two for 46) with the score on 66-2.
YMPC skipper Dwayne Smith (31) – who along with West Indies pacer Fidel Edwards was making a return to the competition – linked up with Nekoli Parris to post 54 at better than a run-a-minute. But he too fell in the 30s, holing out to long-on where Davian Brancker held a well-judged catch off Cummins’ bowling.
The steady Parris gifted his wicket near the close of play when he failed to keep an on-drive off leg-spinner Nicholai Charles on the carpet and offered a simple catch to Nurse to become the fourth batsman to be dismissed after passing 30.
A confident-looking Shane Dowrich and Shamar Cooke played out the last few overs while taking their side to within 14 runs of two batting points.