Sports
Rest of the World beats Barbados
Barbados faltered on a difficult pitch as the Rest of the World opened the 2002 Cricket Nations Cup with a five wicket win in a low scoring contest on Sunday.
The toss at the Smith Road Oval was a good one to win and Rest of the World captain Saheed Mohamed had no hesitation in asking the Barbadians to bat first.
It didn't take long for the pitch to show evidence of the late preparation as several balls bounced awkwardly, making survival close to impossible for the Bajan batsmen.
Barbados captain Alistair Carter was the first to suffer from the unpredictable bounce when he was well caught by Daniel Morris at mid-on as he tried to drive a delivery from medium pacer Wayne Cato, in the second over with the score on four.
Shortly after, Sylvester Suberan struck a double blow when he removed key batsmen Charlie Greaves and Alvin Babb in consecutive deliveries to reduce Barbados to 12 for three.
The procession continued and were it not for a lower order rally led by Wayne Taylor Barbados would have been in an even more embarrassing position. When he was last out for a topscore of 17, Barbados had crawled to 60 all out having used up only 24 of the 38 overs available.
When the Rest of the World replied, Babb made two crucial strikes to account for Tony Higgins and Mohamed but by then most of the terror had gone from the pitch and Rest of the World eased home in the 16th over.
The Nations Cup is an annual tournament in which local residents from Barbados, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands represent their respective countries. The Rest of the World is a combined team of players not representing their country.
Jamaica won the 2001 tournament with a victory over Barbados in last year's final.
Rest of the World captain Saheed Mohamed, while pleased with the win and the performance of his players, felt the pitch played a big role in the success of his team.
"The toss was the key thing. The guys pulled their weight today and we did well. We must give lots of credit to the opening bowlers," Mohamed said after the match.
Alistair Carter, the Barbados captain, highlighted the difficult nature of the pitch in analysing his team's effort.
"The state of the pitch was not conducive to the type of players we had," Carter said.
"The loss of the toss was significant. We loss some early wickets which put us under pressure. We stabilised a bit towards the end but the runs were just not enough."
Carter was still optimistic his side could rebound to win the tournament as has happened on two previous occasions.
"We still have a very good chance of winning. We won it twice already so when we our key players return our chances should be as good as any."