Polished half-centuries by Marlon Samuels and Kyle Hope and a five-wicket haul from Graeme Cremer highlighted an evenly contested second day of the three-day warm-up match between the Sagicor High Performance Centre (HPC) and Zimbabwe yesterday at the Desmond Haynes Oval.
Cremer, who bowled exclusively from the northern end, owed a large part of his success to the cat-like reflexes of Malcolm Waller, who held on to three magnificent catches fielding close to the bat.
The 26-year-old right-arm wrist spinner included both Samuels and Hope among his five wickets for 74 runs from 21 overs. he helped to restrict the HPC to 213 for seven in reply to 255 for eight declared made by the Zimbabweans, who resumed their first innings at 222 for five.
Samuels, in his first major knock since returning from the eye injury suffered in the Australia Big Bash League in January, started slowly before blossoming to excite the small, expectant gathering of spectators with a display of typically tantalizing strokes.
He got off the mark with a trademark wristy on-drive off medium pacer Keegan Meth as he and HPC captain Hope rebuilt the innings from a shaky 23 for two in an alliance worth 74 for the third wicket.
Samuels stroked ten boundaries on the way to 55 off 80 balls in 104 minutes, but left the fans wishing more, when in anti-climactic fashion, he casually pushed a delivery pitched on his legs into the hands of short midwicket fielder Tino Mawoyo to provide Cremer with his first scalp.
Hope was prepared to allow his more illustrious partner to take the lead, but once Samuels departed, he stepped up to take the fight to the Zimbabwe spinners, Cremer and left-arm orthodox Ray Price.
His 163-minute stay at the crease came to a rather disappointing end when on reaching 62 he picked out Price at short extra cover with a loose drive, also off Cremer.
Jermaine Blackwood and Keddy Lesporis both fell victim to the Cremer/Waller combination until a fighting seventh-wicket stand between wicketkeeper Jamar Hamilton (37) and all-rounder Yannic Cariah (36 not out) helped to revive the youngsters’ fortunes in the final session.
The pair posted 68 for the seventh wicket and was only parted mere minutes from the close when Waller, at short leg once again, snared a prod by Hamilton.
Earlier, the visitors lost three wickets in advancing their overnight position by 33 runs before captain Brendan Taylor declared the innings closed after an hour.
Hamilton Masakadza only added three to his 109 not out before swift movement by Trevon Griffith at mid-on resulted in his dismissal by a direct hit.
His replacement, Regis Chacabva, also perished through adept fielding. This time it was Sheldon Cotterell on the deep backward squareleg boundary whose pinpoint return to the wicketkeeper found the batsman short of his ground.
Malcolm Waller, 45 not out overnight, completed a half century off 105 balls and in 116 minutes with eight fours and was the last batsman dismissed, caught at the wicket off Miguel Cummins with the second new ball which was taken immediately on resumption.
Zimbabwean pacer Kyle Jarvis (two for 37) rocked the HPC with a double-strike, first bowling Trevon Griffith and then trapping Andre Fletcher lbw with both batsmen offering no shot to swinging deliveries.