It is still anybody's guess as to who will win first innings points in the top-of-the-table WICB Four-day Regional Championship showdown between Jamaica and Barbados at Kensington Park.

After what was an even first day, where neither bat nor ball dominated, Barbados, after winning the toss and electing to bat, posted a respectable 293 and Jamaica, in reply, reached 31 without loss.

Former Barbados youth batsman, 22-year-old right-hander Jonathan Carter, in his first season of regional four-day cricket (he played limited overs last year), top-scored for the men from the eastern Caribbean with well-played 49, which included three big sixes and two fours, while the in-form Ryan Hinds, after getting a fairly decent start, posted the second best total, 47. Hinds' innings included eight fours, four of which were well timed.

Middle-order batsmen Rohan Nurse and Kevin Stoute also made decent contributions of 37 and 30, respectively, while former West Indies youth pacer, Barrington Yearwood, chipped in with a lively 31 towards the end.

Fair day's play

Bowling for Jamaica, pacer Andrew Richardson, who during last weekend's third round of matches helped to bowl Jamaica to victory over the Combined Colleges and Campuses following a game-turning second innings display of 3-17, bagged another three-timer when he claimed 3-41, while off-spinner Bevan Brown, in his first game of the season, snared 2-44 and leg-spinner Odean Brown took 2-62.

Brenton Parchment (18) and Danza Hyatt (12) are Jamaica's not out batsmen.

"It was a fair day's play as, on a perfect batting strip, to restrict them to 293 was a good effort, and after a decent reply at 31-0, the plan is to come here tomorrow and get first innings as we push for an outright win," said Jamaica's captain, Tamar Lambert.

Different outlook

Barbados' captain, Jason Haynes, however, has a different outlook on the match, saying that while they failed to make a breakthrough yesterday evening and put pressure on the hosts, today will be a different day.

"We wanted a score in excess of 300, but 293 is a good score and we plan to defend it with all we've got," said Haynes who, along with debutant right-handed opener Rashidi Boucher, posted 41 for the opening wicket.

"The plan is to look early wickets and put pressure on them, and once we do that, we should be in good stead," added the 26-year-old Haynes.

BARBADOS 1st Innings

*J Haynes c Hyatt b B. Brown 21 R Boucher b Richardson 22

R Hinds c wkp Hibbert b O. Brown 47

J Carter b Miller 49 D Smith c wkp Hibbert b B. Brown 3 R Nurse lbw b Hinds 37 K Stoute b Richardson 30 +P Browne b O. Brown 10 B Yearwood c Richardson b Bernard 32 T Best c Hinds b Richardson 18 P Collins not out 6 Extras: (b2, lb7, w5, nb4) 18 TOTAL: (all out, 87.2 overs) 293

Fall of wickets: 1-41, 2-72, 3-110, 4-123, 5-164, 6-211, 7-232, 8-248, 9-274, 10-293.

Bowling: Richardson 12.2-1-41-3, Bernard 8-1-46-1, Miller 27-6-70-1, B Brown 15-3-44-2, O Brown 18-3-62-2, Hinds 7-1-21-1.

JAMAICA 1st Innings

B Parchment not out 18 D Hyatt not out 12 Extras: (lb1) 1 TOTAL: (without loss) 31

To bat: Donovan Pagon, *Tamar Lambert, Wavell Hinds, Dave Bernard Jr, +Keith Hibbert, Odean Brown, Nikita Miller, Andrew Richardson, Bevon Brown.

Bowling: Collins 4-0-16-0, Best 2-0-6-0, Yearwood 1-0-8-0.

Position: Jamaica trail Barbados by 262 runs.

Umpires: Melvin Noble, Terrence Birbal.