Daily Times

BARBADOS: Shane Dowrich led yet another West Indies rearguard with an unbeaten half-century as the West Indies rallied from 53 for five to reach stumps at 132 without further loss on a rain-hit opening day of the third and final Test here Saturday. Almost half of the scheduled overs were lost to intermittent showers as day/night Test cricket came to the Caribbean for the first time, three years after the first such fixture was played between Australia and neighbours New Zealand in Adelaide.

Having already played a vital role in the series with an unbeaten 125 that rescued the West Indies in the first innings of the series in Trinidad two weeks earlier, the wicketkeeper-batsman’s rich vein of form continued on his home ground Saturday at the Kensington Oval. His assured innings of 60 not out was well supported by Jason Holder, the West Indies captain contributing 33 not out in an unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 79 and going some way towards justifying his decision to bat first on a green pitch, notwithstanding the struggles faced by the home side’s top order against a Sri Lankan attack spearheaded by stand-in skipper Suranga Lakmal.

Published in Daily Times, June 25^th 2018.