Barnes backs Scorpions to chase down Pride total at Sabina Park

Barbados Pride may have controlled the opening exchanges of the third-round West Indies Championship first-class fixture, but Jamaica Scorpions all-rounder Brad Barnes struck a confident note when stumps were drawn.

The visitors finished Sunday's play at Sabina Park on 346-5 in their first innings. Roston Chase was unbeaten on a run-a-ball 82, while wicketkeeper Leniko Boucher had reached 40 from 46 deliveries.

Off-spinner Barnes, the pick of the Scorpions attack with 2-56, told the Jamaica Observer that Jamaica are far from out of the contest.

"I'm very confident in our batting — the big scores aren't there to show, apart from the two openers (John Campbell and Kirk McKenzie), but I think we have been batting well as a team, so I believe that whatever they [the Pride] post, we can get it," the 28-year-old said.

Barnes conceded that the Pride had scored too freely on what has proven another batting-friendly surface in this three-match series, but he was satisfied with his personal contribution.

"I think they scored a bit too freely, we should've bowled tighter to bring down the run rate a bit. We should have built up more pressure and taken more wickets," he noted.

"It's a tough wicket to bowl on, very batting friendly, but I think I handled myself pretty well," Barnes added.

Jonathan Drakes, who top-scored for the visitors with 94, was content with how his team had set itself up for day two.

"I think it's a solid platform — the goal is to win the match and I think we are well on course to achieving all our goals. So we have to continue along those lines and get as big a [total] as possible," the 31-year-old told the Observer.

Looking back on the dismissal that denied him a fourth first-class century, Drakes blamed a lapse in shot selection that saw him stumped.

"I think it was a bad decision at the time. When I look back at the innings I played, it was in a certain vein, being as positive as possible…and punishing bad deliveries. I think that one mistake cost me, but that happens in cricket," he said.

Under bright skies that suited batting on yet another placid pitch, the Pride won the toss and chose to bat. Captain Kraigg Brathwaite and left-hander Shayne Moseley carried over the form from their previous outing, where they had stitched together 105 for the first wicket.

The pair survived an awkward new-ball burst from the Scorpions, with debutant left-arm seamer Khari Campbell extracting movement both ways and pitching consistently around the off stump.

Brathwaite and Moseley advanced the total to 55 before Moseley was run out for 23, undone after failing to ground his bat while attempting a quick single.

The stubborn Brathwaite, fresh off a 176 against the Scorpions a week earlier, then linked with Drakes to add 145. The former West Indies Test captain looked on course for consecutive hundreds before pacer Odean Smith dismissed him for 74, struck from 164 balls with seven fours.

In-form Kevin Wickham, who arrived at the crease on the back of three straight centuries, departed cheaply, caught and bowled by Barnes for five.

Drakes, elegant through the off side, slowed as the milestone neared. A boundary nudged him into the 90s, but on 94 he wandered out of his crease to a Barnes delivery and Romaine Morris removed the bails behind the stumps. His knock of 148 balls included 12 fours and a six.

Kyle Mayers fell for one, trapped leg before by the hard-working Campbell, leaving Barbados on 254-5.

From there, Chase — who rode his luck with a few streaky strokes early on — and Boucher accelerated, lifting the Pride to 346 by the time the umpires called stumps after 87 overs.