Surprisingly choosing to bat first on the very same Gilbert Park ground where on Friday they crashed for 74 against Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados were seven for three within minutes - all the wickets falling to highly irresponsible strokes.
A total of 122 in 49.4 overs was by no means a grand recovery, but it gave them something to bowl at, and in the 12.3 overs Barbados could get in before rain swept across the ground during the lunch break, Guyana found themselves in just as much bother at 24 for three.
After the heavy shower, there were persistent light drizzles and when the covers were removed there were a few damp spots on the pitch. The umpires called off things at 4:30 p.m., but they could have done so an hour earlier.
With the standings so tight ahead of yesterday's matches, it is vitally important that Barbados clinch the two points that will virtually guarantee them a place in Wednesday's semifinals.
They will come back today - the reserve day - seeking seven wickets while Guyana need a further 99 runs for their second victory of the competition.
It appeared as if Barbados' batsmen wanted the match to finish in time to get back home for some of yesterday's Crop-Over activities on the East Coast. As it turned out, the ones who did the partying were the Guyanese, who removed openers Corey Yearwood and Jason Haynes along with Shawn Sargeant within the first four overs.
There were two encouraging partnerships - 37 between Antonio Mayers and Ryan Hinds, and 34 between captain Marlon Graham and Pedro dePeiza - but that aside, Barbados' batting lacked discipline and all of the Top 6 were again out to disappointing strokes.
Most of the teams in this competition have used a spinner with the new ball and the tactic worked for Guyana as well, with off-spinner Lalchand Persad collecting three for 20 in ten successive overs.
His third ball was short and Yearwood went back and pulled straight to square-leg where it was well held low down, one of two fine catches in the innings.
In the next over, vice-captain Haynes, playing his first match of the competition, flicked the gentle medium-pace of Steve Massiah straight down the throat of the square-leg boundary fielder. Sargeant was wonderfully plucked out at cover without addition.
Trying to rebuild
Mayers and the left-handed Hinds spent the next 13.2 overs carefully trying to rebuild the innings, but any hopes of a major recovery nosedived when they fell within six runs of each other.
Both went in an effort to increase the tempo. Mayers, who made 19 off 35 balls, edged a late dab off Massiah to the keeper, while Hinds, with 13 off 59 balls, was caught on the long-off boundary off Persad.
Skipper Graham, who demoted himself three notches down to No. 6, was beginning to play with some assurance and his 22, along with a few contributions later in the order, helped Barbados' cause.
The Barbadians struck back further with three wickets in the half-hour before lunch. Sulieman Benn, the mean left-arm spinner, claimed the top scalp of captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, bowled with a faster ball at the end of the first over. Graham, employing an all-spin attack, took care of West Indies Under-15 skipper Narsingh Deonarine and on the stroke of lunch, Ryan Hinds bowled Azib Ali Hanif in controversial circumstances after the little wicket-keeper had made two-thirds of the runs on the board.
Then came the rain.
Barbados Score Remarkable Victory Over Guyana
Jedson Yarde, a mere spectator for the greater part of the Nortel Limited-Overs Cricket Championship, delivered in a big way here yesterday, spinning Barbados to a sensational victory over Guyana and a place in tomorrow's semifinals.
On his first appearance in the tournament, the 16-year-old left-arm back-of-the-hand spinner bemused and befuddled tentative batsmen who never approached a seemingly modest target of 122 with any confidence.
Not many would have given Barbados a chance of victory, but Guyana, resuming the rain-interrupted match on 24 for 3 after 12.3 overs were undone by Yarde's five wickets and folded for 90 in the 45th over.
Barbados' victory - by 32 runs - was their third in four matches, guaranteeing them a place in the semifinals even ahead of their last preliminary round match today against Jamaica.
Yarde was the chief wrecker with five for 30 off ten successive overs, and the other end was kept tight by his fellow spinners Ryan Hinds, Sulieman Benn and Marlon Graham, whose shrewd tactics also played an important role.
The mean Benn bowled at an incredible rate of one run an over; Hinds, flat and fast, conceded 16 runs in ten overs and Graham also went at less than two runs an over.
``The confidence from the guys helped a lot,'' Yarde told NATIONSPORT after his heroics.
``From the first ball I was confident because the guys were cheering me on. I was very nervous (before I bowled), but the guys kept telling me to keep things tight.''
Manager Darnley Boxill was high in praise for the Foundation schoolboy.
``Yardie is a match-winner once he can pitch. He took his time, bowled good line and length and had them worried through the air. It was an excellent spell,'' Boxill said.
As the match resumed under sunny skies at Gilbert Park, tension mounted with each passing over.
Guyana started confidently and after two overs of medium-pace from Antonio Mayers proved ineffective, Graham called on Yarde who responded almost immediately by claiming Renwick Batson to a keeper's catch with the first ball of his second over.