CCC make steady start

Adrian Frater, News Editor

Western Bureau:

The Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC), behind a classy 88 from opener Omar Phillips, turned in a good performance against Trinidad & Tobago on yesterday's opening day of their West Indies Cricket Board Regional Four-day Championship first-class cricket match at Jarrett Park in Montego Bay.

After a one-hour delay at the start of the day when the umpires - Melvin Noble and Patrick Gustard - decided that the playing surface was still too wet from preparation moisture, Trinidad & Tobago's captain Daren Ganga won the toss and invited the CCC team to bat.

They posted 197 for seven wickets when bad light stopped play.

Phillips, who played two Test matches for the West Indies against Bangladesh when the region's first-choice players were on strike last year, showed much resolve - albeit offering three chances - in his gritty knock.

He also shared in a 94-run third wicket partnership with Romel Currency.

"We are pretty OK with the position we are in at this time. Hopefully, the last three wickets will give us some more runs tomorrow," said CCC's captain, Floyd Reiffer. "We are satisfied at this time."

The CCC team started cautiously with openers Simon Jackson and Omar Phillips facing off against the T&T opening attack of Ravi Rampaul and Richard Kelly. However, with the score on 11, Jackson played a rash stroke against Kelly and was caught by Dave Mohammed at mid-off for four.

Nikoli Parris joined forces with Phillips and together they took the score to 38 at the lunch break.

On the resumption, Parris perished for 9 when he miscued a hook shot against Imran Khan and skied a catch to wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin, ending their 35-run second-wicket partnership with the score on 46.

Currency joined Phillips and together they went about giving respectability to the CCC batting, posting a good 50-run partnership. During that phase, Phillips reached his half century, which came off 134 balls and included five boundaries.