The win was the first for the Red Force over Barbados in three years. Resuming the final day on 343 for 9, the home team managed to add another 7 runs before Anderson Phillips was dismissed for 350. The total meant the Pride needed a mammoth 350 runs to win, a total they would not get close to.
Muhammad, who finished with overall figures of 34 for 4, went to work early on the innings. The bowler trapped Sheyne Moseley for five and Shamarh Brooks followed soon after for 10, which left Barbados struggling on 32 for 2. Anderson Phillip, who took six first-innings wickets, got in on the act after removing Justin Greaves for one, leaving the Pride in further trouble at 33 for 3. Shane Dowrich was next at the crease but could not repeat his first innings heroics as he became Muhammad’s third wicket.
Kyles Mayers and Kraigg Brathwaite briefly stopped the rot when they added 53 for the fifth wicket but Mayers was dismissed 10 runs short of his half-century by Akeal Hosein. Brathwaite was next to follow, also dismissed by Hosein on 36.
Kevin Stoute and last man Chemar Holder featured in another solid stand, as they added 52 runs for the last wicket but Muhammad struck again by capturing the wicket of Stoute for 33. Holder ended unbeaten on 34 off 37 as the Pride crumbled all-out for 182.
Under Dillon, in the WICB Regional Four Day competition, the Red Force finished one place above the previous season’s third-place finish, with the coach promising to do better in the next campaign.
At the end of 2019, Red Force stormed into the semi-finals of the 50-Over tournament with seven wins in eight matches in Group B. They, however, lost in the semi-finals by four wickets to the Leeward Islands Hurricanes.
According to reports, the TTCB has indicated that due to the impact of the pandemic they would have been unable to pay Dillon. The coach’s position had, however, been advertised in April, despite his insistence that he was keen on returning to the post. A spat with out of favor West Indies wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin had also surfaced during Dillon’s tenure. Ramdin officially filed a complaint with the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) but was told the matter could not be looked into until the end of the season.
"Given what he achieved in the truncated 2020 season in lifting Trinidad and Tobago Red Force to a second-place finish in the campaign, the absence of Mervyn Dillon will be a loss to the twin-island republic as they get ready for the new season,” Mohammed told T&T’s 7pmnews.
“It must be feeling as a slight to Dillon himself, whatever the reasons for him being replaced. We understand that it could be purely financial, and one appreciates the challenges in these difficult times for sports generally,” he added.
"It would certainly help if the administration headed by Azim Bassarath would be very forthright and very transparent in explaining the circumstances in which Mervyn Dillon is going to be replaced as coach of the Trinidad and Tobago Red Force.”
