After a disastrous start, the Trinidad and Tobago Red Force rallied to end the first day of their fifth-round West Indies Championship match, yesterday, against the Barbados Pride with some momentum.

At the Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain, the hosts had to claw their way back into the match, having won the toss and electing to bat first, but then losing four wickets in the first hour to hand the Pride the advantage .

Amir Jangoo, returning to the starting line-up for the injured Jyd Goolie, anchored the Red Force batting, hitting an unbeaten 93 to guide the home team to 172 all out on the stroke to tea.

After that, the Pride appeared on cruise control only to lose four wickets in the final hour of play to reach 99 for four at stumps, trailing the Red Force by 73 runs.

After the initial breakthrough from Jayden Seales, who had the West Indies Test skipper Kraigg Brathwaite edging behind to wicketkeeper Joshua Da Silva for 30, left-arm spinner Khary Pierre stepped up by claiming two quick wickets. He had the Bajans’ number three Raymon Reifer (12) trapped lbw before opener Zachary McCaskie (46) was brilliantly caught by a diving Bryan Charles at first slip.

Anderson Phillip was then brought back for the final over of the day and the move paid dividends as the right-arm pacer got rid of the nightwatchman Jomel Warrican (6) caught behind, as the hosts ended the day with the momentum on their side.

But it was hard work for the T&T throughout the day to get to that point. Jangoo carried his bat through the innings to help the Red Force rally from a shaky start. The left-hander found himself walking out to the middle after just the first ball of the match, when opener Vikash Mohan was trapped lbw by Jason Holder.

Jangoo, however, played the type of innings his team needed though wickets kept tumbling around him. T&T’s other opener Kjorn Ottley (5) got an edge for four before he was caught off Holder (J), the score 15 for two. And Pride medium pacer Shaquille Cumberbatch grabbed two more wickets in short order.

He had Jason Mohammed (2) edging to the wicketkeeper before quickly seeing the back of T&T skipper Joshua Da Silva, who was out off the very next ball, caught at gully for a first-ball ‘duck’.

Despite all the mayhem around him, Jangoo showed great poise and kept his cool during T&T’s batting meltdown and he and Tion Webster—who scored a century in the previous game—came close to seeing T&T to lunch without further damage. But Holder (J) had other ideas.

The former West Indies skipper had Webster (11) caught behind, before bowling Imran Khan for nought to send the hosts into the break tottering at 58 for six. But an undaunted Jangoo played with all the confidence in the world, keeping the innings going. He brought up his half-century (from 107 balls) in style, by cutting spinner Chaim Holder for four.

But wickets kept going down at the other end with Pierre falling for 11 and Charles for 12.

Both men did enough to get the home team to triple digits before Phillip rode his luck to get them to 150.

Phillip, who has a top score of 43 at Test level, smashed Cumberbatch for two fours in one over before he was caught off Chaim Holder for 15, which was the second highest score of the T&T innings.

Jangoo played a few more shots after that, hitting Chaim Holder for three fours to move on to 88 but last man in Seales couldn’t survive long enough for the left-hand Jangoo to reach what would have been a deserved century.

Seales (4) was caught off Chaim Holder to bring the T&T innings to an end at the tea break.

And after a solid start in their reply, the Pride innings began to wobble as T&T fought their way back into the game.

The hosts still have a ways to go to restore parity, but with four wickets in the bag they will believe they are on course to do just that when the match resumes at 10 a.m. today.

Summarised Scores:

At Queen’s Park Oval

RED FORCE 172 (Amir Jangoo 93 not out; Jason Holder 4-47, Chaim Holder 3-28, Shaquille Cumberbatch 3-50) vs PRIDE 99-4 (Zachary McCaskie 46, Kraigg Brathwaite 30; Khary Pierre 2-18)

Position: Pride trail Red Force by 73 runs with six wickets intact.

At Coolidge Cricket Ground

HARPY EAGLES 308 (Kevin Sinclair 74, Kevlon Anderson 48, Gudakesh Motie 46, Veerasammy Permaul 30; Darel Cyrus 5-67) vs VOLCANOES 12-0

Position: Volcanoes trail Harpy Eagles by 396 runs with all 10 wickets intact.

At Frank Worrell Memorial Ground

CWI ACADEMY 300 (Carlos Bowen-Tuckett 76 not out, Johann Layne 63, Joshua Dorne 36, Joshua Bishop 32; Yannick Ottley 5-47, Jediah Blades 3-59) vs CCC MAROONERS 11-1

Position: Marooners trail CWI Academy by 289 runs.

At Sabina Park

SCORPIONS 173-6 (Carlos Brown 68, Romaine Morris 42; Jeremiah Louis 3/34, Colin Archibald 2/23) vs HURRICANES