‘Shiv continues to prove that age is just a number’- Johnson

Feb 05, 2017 Sports

By Sean Devers in Barbados
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Skipper Leon Johnson has been very consistent in this year’s Regional Surper50 and has scored 210 runs with three fifties going into today game with Barbados.
Chanderpaul broke Floyd Reifer’s record for most runs in Regional 50-over cricket during his undefeated 58 against CCC on Friday with Refier watching on as CCC’s Coach and Johnson, the 29-year-old left-handed Test player feels that despite him turning 43 in August Shiv is proving that age is just a number.
Shiv has played in 98 Regional 50 over games and now has 48 more runs than Reifer who finished with 2,878 runs from 106 games. In 164 Tests is second only to Brian Lara in Test runs by a West Indies with 30 centuries and an average of 51.37.
In 268 ODI Shiv has 11 tons and an average of 41.6, his first-Class record is even more impressive scoring 73 hundreds in 355 games with the only triple century in Regional First-class cricket since 1966 when a Regional tournament with involving all the territories, was first played.
“There are some who doubt Shiv’s ability at his age but you could never doubt his ability. He scored a century (his second at this level) against Jamaica, got 22 not out against ICC Americas and batted well here with an unbeaten 58,” said Johnson after the Jaguars beat CCC here on Friday night.
“His presence here alone is valuable… not only on the field but also in the dressing room and his experience helps me a lot. Sometime we don’t see things the same way but he is good for the game not only Guyana but West Indies cricket, the guys should look at how he does things and learn from him,” said Johnson.
Talking about the Jaguars’ chances of winning their first one-day title in 12 years, Johnson who has two fifties from nine Tests and one from six ODIs, feels the win against CCC was very important.
“Coming into this game we knew we had to win at least three games to qualify for the semis. Barbados and Jamaica have been playing well and you can’t underestimate CCC since they have beaten us before and they beat Jamaica as well. So coming to the last phase of this tournament winning is very important,” said Johnson who has led the Jaguars to back-back First-Class tittles in the last two seasons.
On the back of his perforce in this tournament, Johnson should be in the West Indies ODI team to play England in the three-game ODI series next month and the three ODIs against Pakistan on home soil after that.
“The confidence is there I got a couple of good scores in the tournament and hoping to continue that form this for the remainder of the tournament and win the last three games. A century or two would be good,” Johnson added.
Looking ahead, the Guyana Captain feels that if the Jaguars bowl well against Barbados’ strong batting this could determined the outcome of today’s game.
“They (bowlers) have bowled well so far and if we bat first or last we have to restrict them to as small a total as possible. We are doing well batting second, we have not batted first yet in the tournament and we back ourselves to chase down scores so the toss could be important,” stressed Johnson, who continues to do well for Guyana batting in the middle order.