da supremo： Any fielding side which misses six chances in a day deserves harshcriticism
13-Jan-2001Any fielding side which misses six chances in a day deserves harshcriticism. The exception was yesterday.On a day in which Jamaica kept the hosts at bay on a pluperfectbatting strip to reach 243 for seven, Barbados were unable to hold ona handful of agonisingly sharp offerings which came their way.Four came in the final session, and the only ones which could havebeen described as straightforward were Floyd Reifer’s at slip from adefensive prod and wicket-keeper Courtney Browne’s mis-stumping.Had any of the others been clutched onto, they would have required thelikes of a Hershelle Gibbs or a Mark Waugh. They were well wide of thefieldsmen and neither could have been faulted. Barbados manager TonyHoward, however, reckoned too many got away.”I thought the fielding improved a little over the last match, butjust a little. “The chance that Philo (Wallace) tried for was anexcellent effort, but on the other hand, we had some very simpledropped catches,” he told the Saturday Sun.”In cricket, it is not the ones that you drop, it is the ones that youtake and surely those are the ones you have to take if you are goingto make the difference in the game.”I am not saying that the majority of them should have been taken. Iapplaud the effort but I would like to have seen them taken.”The Barbados manager was hoping Jamaica could have been limited to atotal of under 200 after the defending champions chose to bat first.”We could have done a lot better,” Howard said. “They (Jamaica) havealready passed my restricted total. We need to get them out as quicklyas possible and try and get what I consider to the best part of thewicket.”Barbados will be also keen to have a positive report from the medicson their experienced batsman Roland Holder, who spent most of the dayin the pavilion with stomach problems. It was a second blow followingthe late withdrawal of Ryan Hinds with a groin problem.The first two sessions were almost identical, each producing just over70 runs, two wickets and missed catches of a similar nature in asimilar position.Between the start and lunch, the Jamaica casualties were Chris Gayle,last season’s MVP, whose defensive prod was pierced by CoreyCollymore, and Leon Garrick, spectacularly hauled in by Browne.Garrick, however, gained a life when Holder, stationed at gully,failed to hold on to a difficult diving chance.An nearr-carbon-copy occurred in the second session when left-handerWayne Cuff benefited from Dave Marshall’s inability to cling onto theball in another tumbling effort in the same position.Cuff, a slim left-hander who has never distinguished himself atregional level, made some use of the chance to reach a solid, if notspectacular, half-century.He looked assured against Marshall’s leg-spin, but every Barbadian onthe field was certain he edged a catch to the keeper off the samebowler before he passed his previous best first-class score of 35.By tea, he reached 59, but Barbados had managed to remove teenagerBrenton Parchment and captain Robert Samuels during the pre-teasession.Parchment, a West Indies youth team representative at the 2000 WorldCup in Sri Lanka, was shaping well for his 23 when Bryan trapped himlbw for 23. It was the first of four successive dismissals in whichthe Jamaicans were guilty of playing across the line.Samuels, too, was in no bother when he attempted to sweep Marshall andwas a clear lbw victim ten minutes short of the tea break, which wastaken at 149 for four.Within the first 45 minutes on resumption, Barbados took a slightadvantage by claiming the wickets of Cuff and Gareth Breese.Cuff, who made 65 from 136 balls, dragged an intended pull into hisstumps off fast bowler Dayne Maynard and without addition Breese waslbw swinging across a Marshall full-toss.Jamaica were then 161 for seven before Barbados lost their grip.Browne missed another diving leg-chance before Nehemiah Perry scoredthe first of his 37 runs and Keith Hibbert, unbeaten on 32, was putdown by Reifer when he was six.