Digicel Regional First-Class tourney …Depleted Jaguars to face Volcanoes tomorrow

Apr 14, 2017 Sports

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Yadram, Rutherford could make debuts

By Sean Devers
Without six of their main players, unavailable for various reasons, leaders Guyana Jaguars

face-off with the Windwards Volcanoes from tomorrow at the Providence Stadium in their penultimate match in this season’s Digicel Regional First-Class tournament and teenagers Bhaskar Yadram and Sherfane Rutherford are the uncapped players in the squad.
The Jaguars sit on 109.8 points with two matches remaining, 4.6 points ahead of Barbados Pride who plays their final round from today and once the South American Franchise can avoid losing outright to the Volcanoes they will be well on their way to a third consecutive Four-Day title this season.
The most points any team can collect in a match is 22 and if Barbados beat Jamaica in their final game which also starts tomorrow and take the maximum bonus points, they will finish with 127.2 points. The Jaguars need at least two draws to give Leon Johnson the most titles by a Guyana Captain and the only one with titles in three consecutive seasons.
The Jaguars are already without All-Rounder Raymond Reifer, fast bowler Keon Joseph and batsmen Vishaul Singh and Shemron Heytmer because of President’s X1 duties against Pakistan.
But they will also be without leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo who leaves on Tuesday for a West Indies Test camp and their most experienced and most successful batsman in this tournament, Shiv Chanderpaul, who left the team in Trinidad to travel to the United States for personal reasons and will be unavailable for this important game due to his English County Cricket commitments.
The 42-year-old Chanderpaul has 622 runs from 11 innings with two hundreds and five fifties and is second in the runs aggregate behind Kyle Hope who has 649 runs from 15 innings.

The Jagaurs have not lost a game since the Hurricanes beat them by four wickets in St Kitts six games ago. Jaguars oppose the Hurricanes in the last round from next week Friday.
Batsman Chanderpaul Hemraj and off-spinner Steven Jacobs make their return to the Jaguars four-day side, while National under-19 players Yadram and Rutherford have also been included as the selectors invests in youth.
Tagenarine Chanderpaul has not recovered from his fractured finger he sustained in Jamaica giving out of form West Indies opener Rajendra Chandrika another chance to justify the selectors’ faith in him with his second First-Class ton over the Easter weekend, while Rutherford joins Romario Shepherd and Kemo Paul as the all-rounders, leaving no place for Chris Barnwell.
Chandrika and Assad Fudadin should open the batting and will hope to give their team a firm foundation, something that has not happened for the Jaguars in the recent past, while Johnson, who has been good without being outstanding this season will hope to score a century or two in the last two game to keep the West Indies selectors interested.
At 23, Hemraj has played five First-Class matches but none in the last three years and on the back of heavy scoring in the GCB three-day Franchise League, he gets another opportunity to play at this level and will need to make a big score if Guyana are to overcome the Windwards.

Anthony Bramble again has the most victims behind the stumps this season but needs to be more consistent with the bat, while Jacobs like Bramble, is not doing justice to his batting ability by making hundreds. The Jaguars will want to get a big first innings total and Shepherd, Paul, Clinton Pestano and Veerasammy Permaul can make half-centuries at this level but Guyana’s main threat could be off-spinner Shane Shillingford, who has 38 wickets from eight games.
Kyle Mayers, Mervin Matthew, Delorn Johnson and Liam Sebastien will be depended to support Shillingford with the ball.
The left-handed former West Indies opener Devon Smith continues to be a Regional cricket ‘bully’ and this season already has two centuries and a couple of fifties, while Sunil Ambris has been in great form and along with Andre Fletcher, Mayers and Sebastian are capable of making big scores for the Windwards.
There is a likelihood that tomorrow’s game could be played on one of the two ‘old’ pitches that were not resurfaced which could work in favor of the Jaguars spin trio of Permaul, Jacobs and Gudakesh Motie.
The match starts at 10:00hrs and the Jaguars squad read: Rajendra Chandrika, Assad Fudadin, Leon Johnson (Capt), Chanderpaul Hemraj, Anthony Bramble, Romario Shepherd, Kemo Paul, Steven Jacobs, Clinton Pestano, Veerasammy Permaul, Gudakesh Motie, Sherfane Rutherford, Bhaskar Yadram.

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