da betway： The phenomenal heavy-scoring of Ian Ward continued yesterday to the detriment of a Barbados team that made no impression in spite of a change of pitch at Kensington Oval
da betsul： 28-Jan-2001The phenomenal heavy-scoring of Ian Ward continued yesterday to the detriment of a Barbados team that made no impression in spite of a change of pitch at Kensington Oval.Ward, a 27-year-old left-hander who came into the fourth round Bustamatch with an unbelievable 444 runs and a staggering average of 111,batted through the day to complete his third hundred of a fairy-taletournament.Solid from his first ball to his 306th, the England ‘A’ openingbatsman attempted nothing rash and hardly played a false stroke in anunbeaten 133 that carried his aggregate to 577 runs.He must be somewhat disappointed that the US$50 000 on offer to thefirst Caribbean batsman to reach 1 000 runs has not been extended tothe visitors. At the rate he is going, he is almost certain to comeclose to the landmark that many felt was unattainable.It was a busy day for statisticians after a rare double-century firstwicket stand between Ward and Mike Powell in which third-placedBarbados toiled long and hard without success.They were finally able to break the stand after exactly five hours inwhich Ward and the right-handed Powell put on 224, which was 66 shortof the 290 put on by the Leewards’ Richie Richardson and LivingstoneLawrence against Trinidad and Tobago at the Antigua Recreation Groundin 1984.There were very few times yesterday that Barbados threatened todislodge Ward and Powell.The change of surface that was supposedly expected to offer moreassistance to the faster bowlers made no difference to the Barbadiansafter the visitors chose to bat first.During the first two sessions in which the scoring rate averaged 45runs per hour, the closest Barbados came to separating the openers waswhen Sean Armstrong, stationed at forward short-leg, failed to clutchonto an offering that was firmly played into his chest.The fortunate batsman was Powell, who was 33 at the time and having acouple of problems against teenaged off-spinner Ryan Austin.By then, however, England ‘A’ had posted 75, with 63 coming in thefirst hour when most of the lashes were reserved for Barbados captainIan Bradshaw.In spite of his rich form in the tournament, Ward came to Barbadoswith a reputation as a dour batsman who steadily accumulates his runs.It was a comment made on the basis that he spent very long periodsover his 49, 69, 109, 13 not out, 118 and 86 not out in the firstthree matches which were reportedly played on very slow pitches in St.George’s and Port-of-Spain.On the evidence of what he displayed yesterday, no one could suggesthe was merely a blocker. He was fluent in his strokeplay from the wordgo and even outscored Powell, who was the much faster scorer when theyput on 134 in the first innings of their previous match.For most of the day, they were on each other’s trail. In a lunch-timescore of 97, Ward was 47 and Powell 44 and when the pair returned tothe Garfield Sobers Pavilion two hours later to another standingovation from about 40 of their countryman on the balcony upstairs, thetotal was 183 with Ward nine shy of his seventh first-class centuryand Powell on 81.Ward reached his hundred with his eighth boundary, a sweep off legspinner Dave Marshall and Powell appeared set to join him in tripledigits when he inexplicably gifted his wicket at 4 p.m.Powell was on 96 when he attempted a reverse sweep against a straight,faster ball from Austin. It ended an innings that included seven foursand a six from 212 balls.The six was lifted over mid-wicket off Austin from the ball afterArmstrong missed the difficult chance, and it was the first of twosixes struck off Austin.Outside of those, the 19-year-old off-spinner, playing in only hissecond first-class match, created a favourable impression in the 35overs he sent down.Of the other Barbadian bowlers, only Hendy Bryan looked like taking awicket. He came on at a stage when the openers were in full flow andimmediately stemmed the flow of runs with a seven-over spell that costeight runs.Corey Collymore surprisingly only delivered nine overs in two shortspells and was nothing more than tidy. The same could be said of legspinner Marshall.The untidy Barbados bowler was Bradshaw.The left-arm fast medium bowler was banged for 27 runs from his firstthree overs and when he came back for a second spell after lunch, hewas immediately cracked for three boundaries in an over that cost 17and never bowled again for the day.
