PCL First-Class Cricket…Jaguars forced to follow-on by Hurricanes

Mar 14, 2016 Sports

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Johnson’s 27th fifty keeps hope alive

By Sean Devers in Antigua
In association with Care Cottages Antigua & Noble House Seafoods

Set 240 to avoid an innings defeat, Leon Johnson was leading from the front with an unbeaten 51 to help the Guyana Jaguars to 108 in their second innings after they were bowled out for 190 an hour after Lunch in their first innings on the penultimate day of their ninth round PCL First-Class cricket match against the Leewards Hurricanes at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium yesterday.

Shiv Chanderpaul (48) and Raymon Refier (45) added 79 for the seventh wicket in the first innings to rescue the Jaguars from 86-6 but once Reifer who batted 85 balls, 80 minutes and struck six fours and a six, was dismissed just after Lunch, the Jaguars lost four wickets for 25 runs. Chanderpaul batted for 126 minutes, faced 98 balls and hit five fours and a six. Gavin Tonge was the pick of the bowlers with 4-37, while Rakeem Cornwall (3-59) and Alzarri Joseph (2-34) supported.
The Jagaurs are in danger of suffering their first defeat in 16 matches at this level and first since November 2014 when Barbados Pride beat them at Providence and need another 132 runs to make the Hurricanes bat again. Johnson has so far hit eight fours and faced 117balls and batted for 168 minutes and is 14 short of being the first batsman to reach 700 for the season.
Vishaul Singh has faced 91 balls for his 16 and has shared in an unfinished 54-run stand with his Captain. When Guyana began their second innings Chandrika pushed Joseph elegantly for four, while Tagenarine Chanderpaul hit Joseph for two boundaries. Jeremiah Louis seemed very lucky to have his caught behind appeal upheld when Chanderpaul (8) played a reckless shot and clearly missed the ball at 19-1.
But Johnson and Chandrika played confidently and brought up the 50 in 58 minutes with eight fours with the left-handed Johnson scoring the bulk of the runs before Chandrika (20) edged Cornwall to slip at 54-2.
Guyana’s two leading batsmen came together and while Johnson looked to score, Singh dropped anchor and took 25 minutes to move from five to six but in the context of the game the time he spent at the crease was as valuable as Guyana’s Gold. Johnson reached his 27th fifty at this level from 102 balls, 143 minutes and was decorated with eight well timed boundaries while the 50-run stand for the third wicket came off 121 balls.
Earlier, on a day blessed with brilliant sunshine the Jaguars began on 61-3 in reply to the Hurricanes’ 430 and lost night watchman Devendra Bishoo (8) 18 minutes into the day and his overnight partner Singh three minutes later. Both batsmen departed with the score on 72. Bishoo pushed forward to off-spinner Cornwall and was caught at silly mid-off while Singh, who batted for 104 minutes and 89 balls for his 25, edged Tonge to Cornwall at second slip.
Shiv Chanderpaul pulled Tonge nonchalantly behind square for four before Chris Barnwell (7) edged Tonge to the Keeper to leave the wounded Jaguars in a precarious position at 86-6.
This was the perfect situation for Chanderpaul to once again bail his team out and 41-year-old left-hander with more experience than anyone else in the tournament was the perfect man for the job with the Hurricanes threatening blow the Jaguars away.
Chanderpaul eased onto the front foot and easily tucked Tonge for three before stroking the burly Cornwall effortlessly back past him. An impeccable timed extra cover drive then raced away for back-to-back boundaries. Reifer off-drove Tonge for three to bring up the 100 from 294 balls and the Jaguars were desperately trying to escape from Hurricanes’ path of destruction.
Chanderpaul, who scored the third fastest Test century against Australia at Bourda in 2003, slapped the lively Joseph behind point for four when the West Indies U-19 pacer bowled short and wide. Joseph ran in hard and bowled fast and tested both batsmen with short balls in an entertaining contest but Chanderpaul and Reifer counter-attacked.
Reifer just evaded a well directed bouncer but pulled the next ball for four and deposited Joseph for six when he insisted on bowling short as Reifer fought fire with fire. Chanderpaul was in a rare aggressive mood and hooked Joseph for three, forcing Peters to pull him out of the attack.
But the change made little difference to Reifer who banged Jeremiah Louis for consecutive straight boundaries on one the best kept outfields in the Region. Reifer cut Louis and then sweetly drove him down the ground for successive fours and the over 15,000 Guyanese living in Antigua were missing an exhilarating battle as the Jaguars posted their last 50 in 16.3 overs.
Chanderpaul danced into Taylor and clobbered the off-spinner for six before using his feet and blasting him down the ground next ball for four to post the 50 partnership from just 47 minutes. By Lunch Chanderpaul and Reifer were staging a terrific fight back on a good cricket wicket and had progressed to 161-3 with both batsmen on 41. After the interval Reifer was stumped off Taylor to leave the score 165-7 and break the seventh wicket stand which included 10 fours and two sixes.
Anthony Bramble joined Chanderpaul who chopped it onto his stumps when two runs from his 134th fifty at this level as the Jaguars slipped to 172-9. The Jaguars lost three wickets in 25 minutes after Lunch as the pendulum swung back in the Hurricanes’ favour. With 10 away from a batting point Permaul (10) was removed by Joseph an hour after Lunch leaving the Jaguars with a huge deficit.
Johnson and Singh’s partnership is the hope of the Jaguars holding for a draw today.

SCOREBOARD
Hurricanes 1st Inns
K Powell c Reifer b Barnwell                   55
K Carty c & b Permaul                             33
M Hodge not out                                   149
D Cruickshank lbw b Permaul                43
O Peters c wkp Bramble b Beaton         29
J Hamilton LBW b Beaton                     20
R Cornwall c Johnson b Barnwell         11
J Taylor LBW b Bishoo                            6
J Louis c T Chanderpaul b Bishoo       18
G Tonge c T Chanderpaul b Reifer       59
Extras (lb-1, w-1, nb-1, b-4)                      7
Total (for 10 wkts off 130 overs)      430

Fow: 76, 114, 172, 237,267, 283, 298,338, 429, 430

Bowling: Beaton 25-5-82-2, Reifer 27-5-83-2
Barnwell 18-2-68-2, Bishoo 39-8-115-2,
Permaul 40-16-77-2

Jaguars 1st inns
R Chandrika c wkp Hamilton b Joseph     4
T Chanderpaul c Hamilton b Cornwall    13
L Johnson c wkp Hamilton b Tonge        12
V Singh c Cornwall b Tonge                     25
D Bishoo c Hodge b Cornwall                   8
S Chanderpaul b Tonge                            48
C Barnwell c wkt Hamilton b Tonge         7
R Reifer Stp Hamilton b Taylor                45
A Bramble c Powell b Cornwall                 5
V Permaul c Tonge b Joseph                   10
R Beaton not out                                        3
Extras (lb-5, b-4, w-1)                                10
Total (for 10 wkts off 80.1 overs)       190

Fow: 6, 23, 52, 72, 72, 86, 165, 175, 177, 190

Bowling: Tonge 20-3-37-4, Joseph10.1-1-34-2, Louis 8-2-25-0,
Cornwall, 31-10-59-3, Taylor 8-2-19-1, Cruikshank 2-0-6-0,
Powell 1-0-1-0, Taylor 2-1-2-0

Jaguars 2nd inns (following on)
T Chanderpaul c wkp Hamilton b Louis   8
R Chandrika c Peters b Cornwall              20
L Johnson not out                                      51
V Singh not out                                          16
Extras (lb-10, b-2, nb-1)                             13
Total (for 2 wkts off 48 overs)              108

Fow: 19, 54, Bowling: Joseph 8-1-23-0, Louis 4-1-11-1, Tonge 7-3-24-0,
Cornwall 15-9-18-1, Taylor 2-0-12-0, Cruickshank 8-6-3-0, Peters 4-2-5-0

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