Barbados' 235 was nowhere near the total they were anticipating after a hurricane start, but they bowled with unerring accuracy and fielded flawlessly to come away with their first limited-overs victory over the Leewards since 1994.
The battle was a hard-fought one for the most part and the men in resplendent blue and gold won by 75 runs, dismissing their opponents for 160 in front of a large crowd which enjoyed themselves in a picnic-like atmosphere at the Alpart Cricket Club in the country's central parish of St. Elizabeth.
``I thought it was a pretty good victory for us, given our record so far in the Red Stripe Bowl,'' manager Tony Howard said in reference to last season when Barbados won just one preliminary match.
``We fell short of the score we were looking for by about 20 to 30 runs but we suspected that the Leewards would have had a bit of a problem with our slow bowlers and it turned out they had some difficulty.''
Captain Philo Wallace and Adrian Griffith both cracked half-centuries in somewhat different styles that gave Barbados the healthy foundation of 181 for three with 14 overs remaining, but, in dramatic fashion, the last six wickets capitulated for 19 runs.
An asking rate of 4.72 runs to a Leewards team with a powerful top seven appeared to be a modest one after captain Stuart Williams and in-form newcomer Wilden Cornwall comfortably added 57 in 15 overs.
The wicket of Williams, however, brought a much greater effort and the bowling of recalled seamer Hendy Broomes, Hendy Bryan and teenaged left-arm spinner Ryan Hinds and later some tight stuff from the seasoned Winston Reid all contributed to Barbados' success.
The turning point was when the Leewards slipped from 79 for one to 124 for seven. Broomes' final figures of three for 47 from 10 overs were misleading. He broke the opening stand by having Williams caught at mid-on for 35 and removed the potentially quick-scoring Josephs Sylvester and Dave.
Sylvester went to his first ball, edging a catch to the standing-up wicket-keeper Courtney Browne and Dave, who was playing with a fair degree of comfort, was well caught by Hinds running in from the deep mid-wicket boundary.
A catch by Broomes on the deep backward square boundary which accounted for Cornwall for 51 off 99 balls, the run out of Keith Arthurton which was effected by the fast-moving Floyd Reifer and the tidy work of Browne also typified Barbados' outstanding effort in the field.
Hinds, brought on to bowl his left-arm spin at a crucial stage, delivered 10 successive overs which cost only 28 runs. The St. Leonard's schoolboy had the important scalp of the 25-year-old Cornwall and bowled Hamesh Anthony and Curtly Ambrose when the result was already obvious.
The way in which Wallace was smacking Ambrose and Benjamin all over the ground, one would hardly have gotten the impression that they were Test fast bowlers.
Ambrose was ferociously pulled for sixes in successive overs, Benjamin was pulled and cut for boundaries in consecutive balls and by the time they were pulled out of the attack, 68 runs had been knocked from their 13 overs.
It was the type of start Barbados would have wanted and the large crowd at the lovely countryside ground was enthralled by the opening stand of 89 in 16.4 overs between Wallace and Sherwin Campbell.
Man-of-the-match Wallace despatched anything a trifle short, belting seven fours and three sixes in 62 off 57 balls, but was then betrayed by a moment of sheer carelessness that led to his run out.
Searching for a second leg-bye on a fumble to short third-man by Cornwall, the Barbados captain was well short of his ground at the keeper's end.
On Wallace's dismissal, the tempo slowed to the extent that only 35 runs were added between the 20th and 30th overs in which Hamesh Anthony and off-spinner Anthony Lake pulled things back. Campbell, deceived in flight, gave the 24-year-old Lake a return catch, and Roland Holder, who never settled, was bowled attempting to pull Anthony.
The pressure was eased when Sylvester Joseph came on to trundle off-breaks, and, Griffith, with the luxury of three chances to butter-fingered wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs, lifted him for three leg-side sixes in his two overs that cost him 27.
That brief flurry raised expectations of 260 total and although the left-handed Griffith hit a return catch to Arthurton after making 59 from 66 balls, the others surely should have done better.
Floyd Reifer, a struggler of late, appeared to be the batsman with the responsibility of batting through until the end. But once he drove Arthurton into extra-cover's lap, the others who followed just could not cope with the accuracy of Benjamin. Ryan Hinds went by the run out route to his first ball and Reid, Bryan and Collins had their stumps hit in very quick succession.
That made no difference to the outcome.