PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC:
GARETH BREESE struck an unbeaten half century to help steer Jamaica to a first innings advantage over Trinidad and Tobago on the second day of their sixth-round Carib Beer 2003 Cricket Series match at the Queen's Park Oval yesterday.
At the close of play, Jamaica, replying to Trinidad and Tobago's first innings score of 218, were 285 for six with Breese not out on 81 and Nehemiah Perry on 29.
Breese and his captain Robert Samuels (40) posted an 86-run fifth-wicket stand that set up Jamaica's success in the first innings battle, while battling the tricky left-arm spin of Dave Mohammed.
Jamaica got off to a positive start with Leon Garrick cutting and driving impressively through the off-side in a 46-run opening stand with Brenton Parchment, the former West Indies youth captain.
Parchment was first out, caught by Andy Jackson at second slip off pacer Theodore Modeste, who is playing his first game of the season.
Parchment scored 25 with five boundaries, and Garrick - with David Bernard - pushed the score to 88 before he was trapped leg before wicket by medium pacer Dwayne Bravo three minutes before the lunch break.
Garrick, who played one Test and three one-day internationals for the West Indies in 2001, hit 34, laced with six boundaries.
Trinidad and Tobago's bowlers rallied after lunch and claimed two wickets while the Jamaicans added only 58 runs in the session.
Bernard, resuming after the break on 12, struggled for 40 minutes before departing when Mohammed clutched a firm return catch from the right-hander at 103 for three.
Maurice Kepple never looked comfortable and was stumped by Lendl Simmons off Mohammed for 13 as the Jamaicans dipped to 129 for four.
Breese then joined Samuels and the pair hauled the visitors to tea without further loss.
They continued to prosper after the break and the Jamaicans were already within three runs of the home side's first innings score, when Samuels missed an attempt to heave Mohammed over mid-wicket and was bowled middle stump at 215 for five.
It became 245 for six when Mohammed trapped wicketkeeper/batsman Keith Hibbert leg before wicket for 12, but Perry joined Breese for an unfinished stand of 40, leaving the defending Cup champions ahead by 67 runs on first innings at stumps.
Breese, 19 runs away from his second first-class century, achieved his 50 in 109 minutes off 69 balls, and has struck eight boundaries in a near 3-1/2 hour knock.
Mohammed has so far picked up four for 63 off 25 overs, supported by Bravo (1-34) and Modeste (1-58).
Earlier, Trinidad and Tobago extended their first innings by only four runs from their overnight position of 214 for nine before their innings folded in a single over in the morning.
The 18-year-old pacer Jerome Taylor, his second ball of the over struck to the backward point boundary by Mohammed, dislodged the No. 8 batsman with the last ball of the over to end with figures of two for 22 off eight overs.
Mohammed hit 32 with five boundaries before he was bowled by Taylor's yorker, trying to make room to hit through the off-side.
Pacer Darren Powell (3-33) and off-spinner Breese (3-45) ended the top wicket-takers for Jamaica.
