Regional four-day cricket…Guyana & W/Wards hoping to rebound

Mar 13, 2014 Sports

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Face-off from today at Providence

By Sean Devers
The Windward Islands have blown hot and cold in their first two matches in this year’s Regional Four-Day cricket competition, while Guyana, hit by injuries to key players, have batted poorly in both of their matches and are in the cellar position with six bowling bonus points.

Today from 10:00hrs at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence the two teams go head to head in the third round of the seven-team competition with both teams hoping to rebound from defeats in their last game.
The Windwards beat defending champions Barbados but then lost to Trinidad & Tobago to move to 20 points, while Guyana suffered crushing defeats to host Jamaica and Barbados.
The Windward Islands separated from the Combined Islands in 1980 and is the only Regional team without a Regional First-Class title and they know that they will have to contend with the return of Shiv Chanderpaul, Guyana’s leading run-scorer at this level after the 39-year-old left-hander missed the first two games due to a finger injury.
While Guyana is still without batsmen Ramnaresh Sarwan and Leon Johnson and pacer Ronsford Beaton, Chanderpaul who has the most Regional centuries for Guyana (15), should inspire the top order to a more responsible approach against a team missing their skipper Daren Sammy and Shane Shillingford, their most successful bowler at this level.
The curators were hard at work over the last two days preparing what they hope will be a surface good for stroke play since the track for the Barbados match made playing through the line a struggle for the batsmen on both sides as the spinners enjoyed themselves on a track with variable  bounce.
While the Guyanese Test pair of left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul (12 wkts) and leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo (8) are the only bowlers in the team with five-wicket hauls this season, the Windwards have relied on pace, with fast bowlers Nelon Pascal (12), Kenroy Peters (10) and Delorn Johnson (10) all capturing five-wicket hauls.
But like Guyanese Raun Johnson, who bowled impressively on debut, the lively Keon Joseph and Chris Barnwell, fast bowlers could find hard work on the slow Providence track.

Guyana, with six titles but none since 1998, have opposed the Windwards 32 times with Guyana winning 13 and losing on six occasions with 13 of those encounters ending in draws and two in no-results.
Chanderpaul, who is 388 runs away from becoming the first Guyanese with 5,000 Regional First Class runs, will be the glue that holds the batting together, while Narsingh Deonarine, who has nine First-Class tons to his name, will be expected to lend the most support to Chanderpaul.
However, he will be desperate to reproduce his form of 2009 when he became the only Guyanese to score 1,000 runs in a single season (1,068). But he has three ducks in the tournament so far and the patience of his fans and the selectors must be growing thin.
Assad Fudadin and Vishaul Singh have shown Chanderpaul-like temperament but they tended to get bogged down and wasted good starts, while openers Sewnarine Chattergoon and 17-year-old West Indies under-19 left-hander Tagenarine Chanderpaul will hope to go on to get big scores after putting on 92 for the first wicket against Barbados.
Young Chanderpaul bats in the mode of his prolific father and is arguable the most dependable teenage batsman in the Region as his production in the last U-19 World Cup proved.
He scored a carefully constructed 41 against Barbados while Chattergoon made an even fifty. But apart from Singh (73) no other Guyanese has reached a half-century with a succession of impetuous shot selections causing the demise of almost all of the Guyanese batsmen as their team managed scores of 117 and 264 against Jamaica and 140 (when 10 wickets tumbled for 48 runs) and 94 against Barbados in an inept batting display this season.
Barnwell, Anthony Bramble, who gave his wicket away with almost identical shots in Jamaica and at Providence, Permaul and Bishoo need to show more caution if Guyana is to draw games or even win them.
The bowling has been decent but Devon Smith likes Guyana’s attack and could prove dangerous at this level. The 32-year-old has 22 First-Class centuries since making his debut in 1999 and with the experience of 33 Tests, but none in three years, the attacking left-hander could be Guyana’s biggest threat. The Grenadian got 48 & 55 in his last match against T&T.
The Windwards highest ever total of 467 was made against Guyana at this very venue in 2008 but this track does not seem conductive to a 450 total and the Islanders failed to reach 125 in either of their innings in their last match.
Only three batsmen have reached 50 (Smith, Lyndon James & Liam Sebastien) and those players along with Johnson Charles, Keddy Lesporis, Tyrone Theophile and Romel Currency are all capable of runs at this level.
Left-arm spinner Alton Bobb and Sebastien’s off-spin should complement the fast bowling trio for the visitors. Admission is free.

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