Darren Bravo and Adrian Barath hit half-centuries as West Indies reached stumps on 150 for three against Leicestershire on a rain-interrupted first day at Grace Road.
There was no joy for Kirk Edwards and Kieran Powell, who are out of form and fell cheaply in the two-day warm-up game before the third Test against England at Edgbaston next week.
Nadeem Malik, the Leicestershire seamer, dismissed them in the same over, Powell for nine and Edwards for a duck. However, Bravo and Barath shared a third-wicket stand of 111 in 33 overs to pull the tourists out of trouble.
Early-morning rain delayed the start by half-an-hour, and Edwards, the acting captain, had no hesitation in deciding to bat after winning the toss. He, more than anyone, needed as much time in the middle as possible but his miserable tour continued.
Barath and Powell put on 25 in the first eight overs, before Malik struck twice in four balls. Powell edged behind to Ned Eckersley off Malik’s first ball and his fourth accounted for Edwards, pinned leg-before by a ball of full length.
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It was the West Indies vice-captain’s fourth duck in eight innings on a tour on which he has managed only 20 runs with a top score of eight.
Fortunately for the tourists, Barath and Bravo looked in good touch as they steadily built an excellent partnership for the third wicket. Barath produced two sweetly timed cover-drives and brought up the 50 stand with an on-driven three.
After a cautious start, Bravo also began to play some fluent strokes, and a cover drive to the boundary off Malik took the total past 100. West Indies’ progress was then halted for more than an hour by an afternoon rain shower, but, on the resumption, Bravo struck two fours off Malik, helping him on the way to his 50 off 83 balls with eight boundaries.
A massive six from Bravo off James Sykes followed to bring up the century partnership. However, having hit 66 off 97 balls, Bravo went for another expansive drive and was bowled by Rob Taylor.
Barath reached his 50 off 136 balls with a boundary off Sykes - his fourth - but with the light worsening, play was called off for the day at 6pm with the opener unbeaten on 53 and Assad Fudadin on seven not out.