Stragglers Guyana playing for pride against T&T

Mar 25, 2011 Sports

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Win for Guyana could give Barbados/Windwards life-line

By Sean Devers

Bottom-of-the-table Guyana is the only team without a chance of a semi-final place going into the final preliminary round of Regional four-day cricket competition, but Skipper Assad Fudadin says Guyana will be playing for pride when they face Trinidad and Tobago from today at the Providence Stadium.
Guyana will finish last for the third consecutive year if they suffer their fourth loss this season but a win could hamper Trinidad and Tobago’s chances of hosting their semi-final and also present a life-line for Barbados and the Leewards.
When the two teams last met at this level (last year in Antigua in the historic first ever Day/Night Regional First-Class match with a pink ball) Lendl Simmons and Denesh Ramdin scored centuries to spur T&T to first innings points despite a first-innings 65 from Rajendra Chandrika.
A century fourth-wicket stand between Narsingh Deonarine (104) and Sewnarine Chattergoon (74) put Guyana in a position for a come-from-behind win as the Trinis resorted to defensive cricket to draw the game.
In the last decade, T&T has only beaten Guyana once in 13 matches, by 9 wickets in 2008 when Brian Lara returned to Regional First-Class cricket with a masterful 123 in the first innings and an electrifying unbeaten 53 from 27 balls in the second at the Queens Park Oval.
Guyana, badly missing Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shiv Chanderpaul, has gotten the better of T&T in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005 with eight matches between the two sides during the last 10 years ending in draws.
The visitors know Guyana has been bowling well this season and if the experienced Deonarine, Fudadin and Johnson manage to produce to their full potential, a game of only academic interest to Guyana could easily see them being pushed to fifth on the points table if they play careless cricket.
They will still however qualify for the semis since leaders England Lions will return to the UK before the semi-finals.
Guyana have 16 points and are three less than the Leewards who occupy the penultimate position on the points table and if the Windwards (29 points) beat the Leewards outright in their final match and Guyana win here, the Windwards will move to 41 points.
This will put them one ahead of T&T who enter this contest with 40 points after losing to the Leewards and losing first innings in a draw against defending champions Jamaica in their last two games.
Providing Guyana beat T&T, if the Leewards beat the Windwards and CCC beat Barbados, the Leewards will advance to the semis, while if CCC and the Windwards both lose, Barbados will squeeze in.
Despite their recent stutter after the loss of Runako Morton who was held along with Tonito Willett by Trinidad Police for possession of drugs, T&T has looked the best prepared and most cohesive of the teams and with rain forecast for Georgetown for the next few days, T&T should join Jamaica, CCC and either the Windwards or Barbados in the final four.
New Coach Mark Harper has failed to make any impact on the Guyana slump and the selectors have opted for an unchanged squad from the one which was crushed by CCC in their last match, giving the senior batsmen a final chance to prove their worth.
Fudadin and Johnson have both failed to register a century at this level despite their enormous talent and should know that the patience of the Guyanese supporters and the selectors must be running thin.
Jacobs, surprisingly relegated to 12th man for the entire series despite the repeated batting failures could replace Zaheer Mohamed in this match especially since he and Deonarine could combine to produce decent off-spin support to left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul.
Brandon Bess and 19-year-old Ronsford Beaton (who leaves next month with fellow Guyanese Amir Khan and Kwame Crosse for Bangladesh with the West Indies youth side) are both genuinely quick but could find life on the low and slow Providence track, hard work.
T&T will look to Ganga, their inspirational leader who has two tons this season in 489 runs to lead their batting which is without injured Adrian Barath and Dwayne Bravo, the talented Daren Bravo and Morton.
The Skipper, Lendl Simmons, Jason Mohamed, Sherwin Ganga, Tishan Maraj and Ramdin should carry the batting while Test off-spinner Amit Jaggernauth, leg-spinner Imran Khan and pacers Shannon Gabriel, Rayad Emrit and Atiba Alert should take care of the bowling.
Clancy Mack and Clyde Duncan are the Umpires and the game is scheduled to commence at 10:00hrs.
Squads: (Guyana) Assad Fudadin (Captain), Rajendra Chandrika, Richard Ramdeen, Leon Johnson, Narsingh Deonarine, Vishaul Singh, Steven Jacobs, Derwin Christian, Veerasammy Permaul, Brandon Bess, Ronsford Beaton, Zaheer Mohamed,
Keon Joseph
(Trinidad & Tobago) Daren Ganga (Captain), Denesh Ramdin,
Lendl Simmons, Amit Jaggernauth, Jason Mohamed, Nicholas Alexis,
Sherwin Ganga, Tishan Maraj, Imran Khan, Yannick Carriah, Atiba Alert, Shannon Gabriel, Rayad Emrit

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