A penetrative bowling display led by off-spinner Richard Young put Pine Hill Dairy St John Cultural in a strong position to record an outright win over Tweedside Esso Maxwell yesterday on the penultimate day of the Barbados Cricket Association’s Division 2 final at Wildey.
Set 103 for victory after reducing Maxwell to 140, St John Cultural reached 60 for two in 11 overs before bad light ended play at 5:30 p.m. with ten overs remaining.
When play resumes today with opener Joel Moore, on 26, and skipper Andre Corbin, undefeated on six, St John Cultural will have all day to score a further 43 runs.
Maxwell started Day 2 of the three-day contest trailing by 38, having scored 113 for seven in their first innings to which St John Cultural replied with 151 for seven, also on the opening day.
Maxwell ran into trouble from early when Lamar Mayers removed openers Geoffrey Mapp and Ian Freeman to leave the total on 19 for two.
Winston Herbert also fell cheaply and when Young (three for 40) took the first of his three wickets by dismissing Ricky Clarke for 21, Maxwell led by just 12 with the top four batsmen in the order already gone.
John Stuart dropped anchor but there was little support and by tea, Maxwell had limped to 92 for six. Â
Roland McConney fell immediately after the break and the key wicket of Stuart followed in controversial fashion as Maxwell slipped deeper into trouble at 123 for eight.
An appeal for lbw against Damian Edwards was turned down by umpire Winston Cossey. With non-striker Stuart seemingly walking down the pitch for a conference with Edwards, the bowler Young broke the stumps with the ball and the appeal for run out was upheld, sparking a huge debate beyond the boundary regarding the issues of dead ball and the spirit of the game.
Stuart battled 87 minutes for his topscore of 39. He faced 66 balls.
