Review 2018 Regional Super50 Jaguars Bridesmaids once again in B’dos in October After failing to clear semi-final hurdle in February

Dec 29, 2018 Sports

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By Sean Devers
Guyana’s 10th 50-over title and first since 2005, eluded them twice in one year although they reached the semi-final stage on both occasions.
The first Super50 was played in Antigua from January 31, 2018 with Leon Johnson hoping to join Clive Lloyd (1983) and Roger Harper (1997) as Guyana Captains to win the double.

Kent and the United States were joined by Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, the Leeward Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Windward Islands and the Combined Campuses and Colleges.
Barbados and the Windward Islands from Group A, and Guyana and Kent from Group B progressed to the semi-finals. In the first semi-final, Barbados beat Kent by 13 runs.
In the second semi-final the Windward Islands beat Guyana by 52 runs, with Tyrone Theophile scoring his first 50-over century despite a 72-run eight wicket stand between Veerasammy Permaul (37) and Sherfane Rutherford who was run out for 49.
The pair joined forces with the Jaguars at 108-7 chasing a revised target of 284 from 47 overs. Shiv Chanderpaul, 38 with four fours and a six, Anthony Bramble (27) and Chris Barnwell (25) all wasted starts.
Off-spinner Raamal Lewis had 3-56 as the Windwards reached 286-7.
The Windward Islands won the tournament, beating the defending champions Barbados in the final.
Barnwell, a replacement for Kemo Paul, was an instant success with 89 against the Leewards in the first round and 56 against Jamaica in his 215 runs from six innings. He also had 4-35 in the return game against the USA.
Shimron Hetymer, who scored 103 against USA, only played seven matches due to Windies duties, was Guyana’s leading run scorer with 284 runs with a ton and a fifty.
Johnson had two fifties including a 99 when he was run out against the Leewards in his 189 runs from eight innings, while Chanderpaul Hemraj had two while Shiv Chanderpaul was the other Guyanese to score a fifty.
When Shiv batted with Tagenarine in the semi-final it was the first time that a father/son pair had batted together in a Regional 50-over game.
Devendra Bishoo (14), Kemo Paul (13), Permaul (11) and Romario Shepherd (11) were Guyana’s leading bowlers.

In the October Super50, the Jaguars changed the positivity they showed throughout the tournament to a depressing dose of ultra-cautious batting in the Final in Barbados.
Jaguars were again condemned to Bridesmaid when CCC Marooners, in their second final, won their first title with a six-wicket victory to extend Guyana’s title drought to 14 years.
This was Guyana’s 17th Final and first since Red Force bowled them out for 65 in 2015. Between 1980 and 2005 Guyana won nine titles but none since they beat Barbados at Bourda in 2005.
The 22-year-old Tagenarine Chanderpaul scored a subdued 56 from 95 balls with four boundaries and shared in four partnerships of over 24 but none higher than 37.
Chanderpaul’s maiden 50 included 58 dot balls but his only support came from Trevon Griffith (20) and Raymon Reifer whose 38 took his tally to 323.
A combination of cautious batting, a sluggish track and controlled bowling resulted in Jaguars falling for 204 in 49.1 overs after facing 157 dot balls.
Jermaine Levy (4-43) and Skipper Carlos Braithwaite (3-42) bowled well for CCC who reached 205-4 in 37.4 overs.
CCC were led by a shot-filled 109 opening stand between Kyle Corbin (72) and Kjorn Ottly (45). Braithwaite chipped in with an unbeaten 30.
Trinidad Red Force had undoubtedly the strongest team on paper in Zone ‘A’ of the tournament but Guyana Jaguars, who topped the zone, had the best ‘team’, the only bowler with a hat-trick and arguably the best Captain.
Jaguars had three batsmen in the top six run-scorers and two among the six wicket-takers.

The Jaguars were without 21-year-old batting sensation Shimron Hetymer, Kemo Paul and Devendra Bishoo for the entire tournament and Guyana’s 30th ODI player Chanderpaul Hemraj, for the last five games.
The Jaguars looked the best prepared and fittest team and finished with 29 points after losing their first game.
Their dominance was demonstrated by them winning all five of their games with a bonus point.
Jaguars (1) and Red Force (2) qualified for the semis in Barbados on October 25 & 26.
Chris Barnwell scored 255 runs with two half-centuries (61 not out & 99 not out) and was only behind Red Forces’ Nicholas Pooran (283) and Canada’s Naveet Dhaliwal (271) on runs aggregate in the Trinidad zone.
Opener Trevon Griffith (207 runs), Raymond Reifer (217 runs), while Sherfane Rutherford (121) Hemraj (141) and Skipper Leon Johnson (107), reached 100 runs.
Hemraj played three games before leaving for the ODI series in India and scored an unbeaten 103.
The Jaguars’ bowling was very consistent and was backed up by good fielding with Jamaican off-spinner Ramaal Lewis finishing with the third most wickets (12) behind Canada’s Romesh Don (17) and Windies ‘B’ Larry Edwards (13).
Berbician pacer Clinton Pestano proved to be one of the ‘finds’ of the tournament, bowling with immaculate control, good pace and both-way movement.
Only Don, among the pacers had more wickets than Pestano’s 11 and two washed out games, possibly robbed him the opportunity of passing Don’s wickets.
One of the highlights of the tournament was Pestano’s hat-trick: He removed Lendl Simmons, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo in three balls to become the first Guyanese to claim a ‘50-over’ hat-trick and the fifth bowler to do so.
Rajendra Dhanraj (1996), Anthony Martin, Pollard and Sunil Narine were the others to do it.
Reifer (5 wkts) proved his all-round ability, while Veerasammy Permaul (8), Ricardo Adams (4) and Romario Shepherd (5) also bowled well for the Jaguars, were astutely led by Johnson.
The zone matches were set in the middle of the rainy season and was marred by adverse weather which escalated into the worst flood in T&T in 50-years resulting in five games being washed out including the last two rounds.
U-19 foursome Ashmead Nedd, Kevin Umrou, Sachin Singh and Kevlon Anderson were selected for a Windies U-19 Camp after Guyana, who finished third in the 3-day format and won regional 50-over U-19 tournament for the sixth consecutive year. Barbados won both the Regional U-15 and U-17 tournaments.
It was announced at the GCB Awards Ceremony that National Coach Esuan Crandon had been selected as Assistant Coach to the Windies senior team and the LBI facility on the East Coast would be upgraded to an International venue with lights being installed during the second phase of work.

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