PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):

Trinidad and Tobago's captain Daren Ganga steered his side with a resolute half-century against Jamaica, on a rain-hit opening day of their WICB regional four-day match yesterday.

Sent to bat, Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) pulled themselves to a close-of-play score of 145 for four after rain accounted for stoppages amounting to almost three hours at Queen's Park Oval.

Ganga scored 57 and shared in a century stand with Justin Guillen, who made 48, while medium pacer David Bernard led Jamaica's bowling with two wickets.

The visitors had quick success at the start when teenage opener Adrian Barath was dislodged with the 10th ball of the match with just one run on the board.

Jamaica's only success

Fast bowler André Russell, who failed to take a wicket in the champions' first-round win in St Kitts last weekend, produced Jamaica's only success of the morning session. His fourth delivery nicked the outside edge as the 18-year-old pushed forward and was caught behind by Keith Hibbert without scoring.

But Ganga joined Guillen and the pair carefully steered the regional One-day and Twenty20 champions to 58 for one at lunch, en route to a solid century partnership.

They continued to build the partnership in the second session but bad weather held up their hunt for more runs and Jamaica's bid for wickets.

Only an hour of play was possible in the post-lunch period and while rain chased the players off the field at 1:15 p.m. and again at 2:32 after they had returned for a restart at 2:00, Ganga was able to achieve his 40th first-class 50.

Ganga, who turned 30 years old on Wednesday, stroked seven boundaries and faced 120 balls for his half-century.

Guillen and Ganga added 106 runs for the second wicket before Bernard removed the left-handed opener two short of a half-century.

From a tea-time position of 110 for two, showers kept the players in the pavilion until 4:45, after which T&T were wobbled by a two-wicket burst soon after the restart.

Brown trapped Lendl Simmons (13) leg before wicket at 123 for three and they lost Ganga without addition to the score.

Young Darren Bravo and Sherwin Ganga then linked up to stop the slide, staying together in the protracted period to make up for lost time and were 15 and four, respectively, when play ended at 5:48 p.m.

Chief wicket taker, Bernard, has current figures of two for 38 off 16 overs, while the other wicket takers have also been economical - Russell, with one for 20 off 11 overs and Brown, one for 29 off 14 overs.