Carlton Baugh Jr - JUNIOR DOWIE
BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS, (CMC)
CARLTON BAUGH STROKED a belligerent half-century to lift West Indies 'A' to a series-clinching four-wicket victory over England 'A' at the Windward Club yesterday.
The little wicket-keeper/batsman pulled the hosts around from a precarious position of 50 for five to help them attain a target of 182 with 10 overs to spare.
The Windies reserves finished on 183 for six in 40 overs after England A had gathered 181 all out in 49.5 overs.
With the pressure on, Baugh lashed 71 off 73 balls with five fours and four sixes that eventually guided West Indies to a comfortable victory that made them 3-2 series winners following their 1-0 triumph in the two-match unofficial Test series.
Baugh was especially severe on off-spinner Gareth Batty, who he belted for three sixes and thoroughly dominated a sixth-wicket partnership of 101 with Narsingh Deonarine.
The left-handed Deonarine, short of runs in the series, benefited from a vital mis-stumping on nine to hit an unbeaten 34 while Darren Sammy rushed West Indies to victory by spanking 20 off just 16 balls with four boundaries.
Baugh first signalled his intentions by lifting Batty over cover for his first six. The second also went over cover off the back foot against the same bowler, who was then lifted over mid-wicket.
His fourth six was his most memorable, charging fast medium Rikki Clarke and lifting him over extra-cover.
Baugh eventually holed out to deep mid-wicket attempting a fifth six with 31 runs still needed, but there were no further alarms for West Indies.
Their early problems were caused by Mahmood, the tall fast bowler who emerged as the leading wicket-taker in both the Tests and limited-overs series in which he claimed 24 scalps overall.
Mahmood, who finished with three for 34 in nine overs, had Lendl Simmons (1) caught at the wicket, induced Marlon Samuels (19) into top-edging an attempted hook and had Sylvester Joseph (7) giving a catch to cover.
Despite left-arm spinner Michael Yardy sending down a tight spell of ten overs for 24 runs, England were unable to make further inroads as Baugh took up the attack.
England, to their credit, made a game of it after they were restricted to their sub-200 total.
After rain delayed the start by 40 minutes, England never got going following their decision to bat first.
Tino Best put them under pressure with early pace, but Sammy's medium-pace and Samuels' off-spin pegged them back in the middle of the innings.
Off-spinner Samuels took two for 23 in ten overs, medium-pacer Sammy two for 31 from his ten overs and off-spinner Omari Banks maintained West Indies' grip by grabbing three for 32 in 8.5 overs.
Alex Wharf, sent in as a pinch-hitter at No. 3, hit the topscore of 37 and the only other notable contributions came from left-handers Yardy (28) and Ed Joyce (23).
Baugh was named Man-of-the-Match by West Indies Under-19 coach Roddy Estwick, while Joseph, on the basis of his heavy scoring in the Test series in which he made 302 runs (averaging 100.66), was adjudged Man-of-the-Series by the Nation newspaper's cricket correspondent Haydn Gill.
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