Defending champions Barbados survived a stern test from West Indies under-19 pacer Ravi Rampaul and Mervin Matthew to beat the young West Indies by three wickets at the ARG yesterday to book a place in the semi-finals of the 2003 Red Stripe Bowl regional one-day cricket competition.

Former West Indies test batsman Floyd Reifer hit five fours and a six from 67 balls in his valuable innings of 54 and, along with skipper Courtney Brown (37 with two fours and two sixes from 69 balls), added 88 for the fifth-wicket to see Barbados home.

Barbados made 162-7 in 41.5 overs replying to the 161 all out in 48.2 overs made by the regional under-19 side preparing for the 2004 youth World Cup in Bangladesh.

Brown joined Reifer at 28-4 and was lucky to survive an appeal for run out when on six at 38-4, when he appeared to fail to beat a direct throw from Matthew at mid-off at the striker’s end.

The pair then showed their experience on a track with some life to fend off the hostility of Rampaul and the consistency of Matthew.

They took advantage of the lesser bowlers before Brown was stumped by Denish Ramdin off the ordinary off-spin of Jonathan Augustus at 116-5.

Rampaul continued to stake a strong claim for selection in the West Indies senior team to tour Africa later in the year with another spell of lively fast bowling.

The Trinidad first-class pacer removed Sherwin Campbell for a duck at 5-1 and then trapped Dwayne Smith, who hit an explosive unbeaten 92 against Guyana on Wednesday, LBW for one at 13-2.

Matthew was also in the action under ideal conditions by getting rid of Ryan Hinds (7) and Dale Richards (14) to leave Barbados on 28-4 before the experience of Brown and Reifer revived the situation with intelligent batting.

Reifer eventually fell to Augustus, pulling a long hop to mid-wicket at 130-6, while Ryan Hurley, who hit a cameo run-a-ball 29 with four fours and a six off Rampaul, departed at 153-7.

Rampaul ended with 2-43 from nine overs, while Matthew 2-29 and Augustus supported with 2-20 for the West Indies under-19 side, who finished with seven points from their four matches and gave a very good account of themselves in the competition.

Earlier, first class batsman Lendl Simmons hit five fours from 63 balls in a top score of 45 after he was dropped on six by West Indies fast bowler Vasbert Drakes off his own bowling.

Left-hander Liam Sebastian made an unbeaten 29 with two fours from 47 balls while skipper Ramdin (24), Guyana’s Zamal Khan (20) and Craig Emmanuel (17) were the other batsmen to get into double figures.

West Indies left-arm pacer Pedro Collins (6.2-1-18-3) and Hurley (10-3-23-3) did the damage with the ball for Barbados who ended with 13 points from their four games.