da winzada777： The New-Look Barbados team presented a mixture of exciting andenigmatic stuff yesterday
Haydn Gill24-Aug-2000The New-Look Barbados team presented a mixture of exciting andenigmatic stuff yesterday.Dale Richards, one of the seven debutants, entertained another fairsized crowd at the Windward Club ground with a series of scintillatingstrokes on the second day of the first-class match against SouthAfrica ‘A’.Richards’ 53, which included 11 sweetly-stroked boundaries off 92balls in two hours’ batting, was almost identically matched in termsof quality and statistics by Ryan Hinds’ solid 54 made in 123 minutesfrom 93 balls with nine boundaries.There was also a solid contribution at the top of the order fromanother first-timer Shirley Clarke, but three of those on show at thislevel for the first time will not want to remember their methods ofdismissals.Rondell Yearwood, Kurt Wilkinson and Dale Mason contributed two runsand survived only 13 balls among them, and each fell to what somedescribed as ‘schoolboy’ strokes.Yearwood is a capable wicket-keeper/batsman at club level, but evenhis most diehard fans might say he is not suited to play as aspecialist No. 3 at-this level.He managed to open his account but was soon slashing at a widedelivery he managed to snick to third slip.The association between Richards and Hinds that yielded 80 runs in 70minutes on either side of tea was, however, followed by a period inwhich bowlers were not made to work hard for their wickets.Joy to watchIt was a joy to watch the 24-year-old Richards. He was compact indefending and pleasing when he was finding the boundary with eitherspanking square-drives, slashing upper cuts or ferocious pulls.Whenever he was in full flight, Julian Hunte, dressed in a blackpants, blue jacket and gold waistcoat and proudly waving a Barbadosflag, added the sounds of his conch shell.Hunte may have been an inspiration to dozens of schoolchildren whotried to get some sort of a Mexican Wave going.There was nothing to blow about or jump and wave when Richards, hisfootwork almost non-existent, was bowled attempting a loose driveoff-robust fast bowler Charl Langeveldt half-hour-after tea.Wilkinson replaced his Carlton clubmate, but looked to be in a tanglewhen he played around a full length delivery and was bowled byLangeveldt.DisappointingAs quickly as Mason arrived, he was making his way off the ground tothe disappointment of the many St. Philip supporters who came to watchtheir parish boy.One will never know if the occasion made him nervous, but the casualflick to mid-wicket off left-arm spinner Robin Peterson was nottypical of someone who is enjoying his best ever Division 1 season.Three wickets, therefore, had gone for the addition of 12 runs.Hinds was still in, but he was another one who gave his hand awayafter not a single bowler failed to trouble him all afternoon.As usual, his front-foot driving was out of the top drawer and heexpertly-lifted the left-arm spin of Peterson down the ground on acouple of occasions.But, as has happened more than once, Hinds was unable to convert ahalf-century into a major score. Attempting to chip the medium-pace ofJustin Kemp, he holed out to deep mid-on where Mfuneko Ngam took agood catch running back.At that point, Barbados were 185 for seven, but wicket-keeper CoreyGlasgow and Ian Bradshaw batted out the last hour to give Barbados achance of overhauling the visitors’ total at the end of a day whichwent past 6 p.m. because of three stoppages for rain.Ngam’s catch was the second notable one in the innings, the firsthaving accounted for Clarke when Kemp made a big stretch to his rightat first slip.Ngam was also in the thick of things with the ball earlier on. Givenan extended spell in which he generated pace and bounce with the newball, he removed Yearwood and Philo Wallace after the Barbados captaintook 26 balls to get off the mark.