T&T, Windward win opening matches

Darren Bravo struck the first hundred of this season's WICB regional one-day competition to lead reigning champions Trinidad & Tobago to an eight-wicket victory against Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) at Kensington Park in Jamaica. Coming in at No. 3, after his older brother Dwayne was dismissed with the score on 17, Bravo hit six sixes during an innings of 104 off 121 balls. He pushed towards the century with three sixes in left-arm spinner Kavesh Kantasingh's ninth over. Bravo forged a half-century partnership with Adrian Barath and then added another 119 with his captain Daren Ganga to achieve the target of 201 in the 43rd over.

CCC nearly had a centurion too but Floyd Reifer's innings was cut short on 99 when he was caught by Dave Mohammed off Kieron Pollard. Reifer's contribution was the only one of note in CCC's innings, though their captain Romel Currency scored a painstaking 49 off 104 balls. CCC were comfortably placed at 138 for 3, but T&T's seamers Ravi Rampaul (4 for 36) and Pollard jolted the middle order and restricted them to 200 for 8.

An ankle injury to Chris Gayle and rain aided Windward Islands in their task of upsetting Jamaica at the Trelawny Stadium. Gayle was forced to retire hurt on 0, with Jamaica on 16, and watched as his team lost wickets in their struggle for momentum. He returned with the score on 134 for 4 and blitzed 58 off 38 balls, an innings that included four fours and four sixes. Gayle's strike-rate of 152.63 was the only one greater than 65 in Jamaica's innings and, as a result, the home team was able to post 223 for 5.

Windward openers, Devon Smith and Johnson Charles, added 65 by the 15th over of the chase before rain stopped play. When they resumed two hours later, the target had been revised to 113 off 25 overs, leaving Windwards to get only 48 off ten with all their wickets intact. They lost quick wickets, though, and went from 66 for 0 to 85 for 5 in 29 balls. Smith remained firm and was unbeaten when rain interrupted their chase for a second time after 20 overs. The umpires inspected the conditions when the weather cleared, but ruled it was not suitable to continue. Under the D/L method, Windwards were 10 runs ahead.