By GARTH WATTLEY
IT WAS a lovely day for cricket, clear skies and gentle breezes.
But yesterday was also a day of green tops and clattering Trinidad and Tobago wickets. However, as they walked pensively off at the end of an eventful first day against the Leeward Islands at the Queen's Park Oval, Brian Lara's President's Cup men were haunted-not only by their own first-day inefficiencies-but by two ghosts of West Indies past.
Having failed to negotiate the movement sharp exiled WI pacer Kenny Benjamin (6/39) extracted from the helpful wicket, the locals crashed for 125 in two sessions.
Then, with wickets to take, Keith Arthurton, another man still out in the Caribbean cold, added to local misery with a purposeful unbeaten 72.
That effort helped put the Leewards on a threatening 147 for 4, their lead already 22.
As team T&T talked about it behind closed doors, the conversation may well have been about Lara's bad luck in losing the toss and the seam and swing that ``Benji,'' Curtly Ambrose, even Whitmore Quinn and Carl Tuckett got from the Oval track.
But soon, a brave soul would have had to stand up and take some blame. Then others would have to bear witness.
For certain, the local batsmen were active participants in their own nightmare.
Repeatedly tempted down the ``corridor of uncertainty'' outside off-stump, captain to cook strayed and stumbled-to the delight of Leewards captain Stuart Williams and the posse of slip fielders he employed all innings. The tale would be even sorrier had it not been for the 21 no-balls the bowlers contributed in the extras ``top score'' of 27.
Lara, having patiently got to 20, was genuinely beaten by a Quinn delivery just around off-stump and Williams took the first of three excellent catches, a one-handed effort diving low to his right.
But there was not quite the same danger evident in the ball Suruj Ragoonath seemed to drive to wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs with the score on 17. And, given a second chance, Phil Simmons would probably not have flashed at the Ambrose ball that Williams leapt up to snare one-handed with the total 73.
The second session was already in progress now. And by the end of it, T&T last man Rajindra Dhanraj was leading the players to tea having become Benjamin's sixth victim when he offered Jacobs his third catch.
Jacobs had also swallowed up Denis Rampersad (21). The Wanderers batsman, who had applied himself well for an hour and a half, and who had just cut Quinn for a crisp boundary, tried to pull Benjamin for another four. But his miscued effort only found Jacobs' waiting gloves at square-leg.
Having taken five of the eight wickets to fall in the second session, ``Benji'' then put his feet up to watch the other ``ghost'' do some tormenting.
Left-handed Nevisian Arthurton came to the crease at a precarious 14 for 2. The decent but subdued Oval crowd had just begun to find their voice after Ian Bishop warmed them up with the wickets of Leewards skipper Williams (0) Junie Mitchum (5).
But Arthurton and his partner Lanville Harrigan had a plan. Unlike the bogged down T&T bats, they made attack their defence.
Riding the luck well (Harrigan was badly missed by Lara on 12), the pair added 59, seeing off Bishop and Dillon. Simmons eventually picked up Harrigan for 28.
But with T&T leaving out the unlucky Nigel Francis, Lara was forced to juggle the leg-spin of Dinanath Ramnarine, Dhanraj and Rampersad's off-spin. Eventually Dillon, in a second spell bowled Dave Joseph with the total 89.
Arthurton however prospered, pulling powerfully, cutting crisply and driving with precision. He has so far struck 11 fours and, off Dhanraj, one six. And with the equally aggressive Ridley Jacobs (22 n.o.) he has so far posted 58.
This morning, Arthurton will be back on the haunt. Lara could do with a ghostbuster.
Day 2: Lesson from Leewards: T&T lose in two days
By GARTH WATTLEY
AT 11.35 a.m. yesterday morning it was still dull and grey. But with the Leeward Islands batsmen already back in the pavilion, the nightmare appeared to be over for Trinidad and Tobago's President's Cup cricketers.
However, at sunny 4.35 p.m., the darkness had returned for Brian Lara's men.
When Leewards skipper Stuart Williams hit the game-winning boundary, the Leewards had gained a 10-wicket win, but T&T had lost a game. And a little more.
As they gathered in front the pavilion for the final rites, a stunned home crowd was trying to come to terms with a day of extraordinary action.
The audience could not have written the script better when six Leewards wickets crashed for 28 in 14.3 overs in the morning session to the inspired trio-Ian Bishop, Mervyn Dillon and Phil Simmons. But before they could blink, things had soured.
Facing a deficit of 50, the T&T boys sank faster than the Titanic, crashing to 87 all out in 41.1 overs and 192 minutes. Scheduled for four days, the match had lasted less than two.
And the second innings total is now the lowest ever score by the national team in Shell/Shield/Red Stripe/President's Cup matches at the Oval, beating by one the 88 made against the same Leewards.
Lara had been here before. In 1990, he was also at the helm when Richie Richardson's team won by eight wickets, the ball also doing the talking. ``It was more of a bowler's track than anything else,'' Lara told the media after yesterday's match, trying to put a brave face on it. ``For a four-day game,'' he added, ``this pitch was not prepared for four days. Losing the toss played a very big part.''
And having criticised the grassy strip on which the pacers took all 30 wickets, the captain also refused to lay the blame at the feet of his players.
``I'm not going to fault my batsmen for the way they got out. I want to put this match behind us.''
Lara may well want to banish this game from memory. But there are some problems that time alone may not solve. For, as first Curtly Ambrose and Kenny Benjamin started the slide and then Carl Tuckett (4/17) and Whitmore Quinn (2/33) completed it, T&T succumbed to seam. And technique.
The period before lunch was sedate enough, Simmons and Suruj Ragoonath adding 13 without alarm.
But little did the luncheon crowd know that the calm was over. The storm was about to blow in. And T&T found themselves to windward. The score was unchanged when the first blast came.
In the second over, Benjamin found a gap between bat and pad and knocked back Simmons's off-stump. Three runs on, the promoted Denis Rampersad perished, Ambrose having the tentative right-hander caught by wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs.
Crisis? Out strode skipper Lara. But the pressure was still on when, on 1 and the team on 19, ``Ambi'' had him. Changing to round the wicket, the Antiguan ace made the T&T titan play and miss. Then he played and edged into Dave Joseph's waiting hands at first slip.
The game was not yet over. But the home team's number was coming up. And you could say ``side down'' once the patchy Ragoonath, having battled 109 minutes for 15, touched a careless drive to Jacobs.
By the time Smith (lbw playing across the line) and David Williams left (lbw playing no shot), the score was 55 for 6. There was no Keith Arthurton (Man-of -the-Match) to save T&T.
At 62 for 6 at tea, only the giddy schoolchildren could still raise a cheer.
Topscorer Dillon (18 n.o.) lifted their spirits with a towering six to long-on off Quinn. But Bishop and Lincoln Roberts were also back in the pavilion by then.
And when Tuckett yorked Rajindra Dhanraj middle stump, it was time to say ``Amen.''
Williams and Lanville Harrigan ensured there would be no miraculous T&T deliverance, knocking off the 38 runs without being separated. It was over. And as it still early there was lots of time for the homesters to think. And do their homework.