Guyana now 15 years without a 50-overs title Selectors should pick horses for courses

Nov 29, 2019 Sports

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By Sean Devers in Trinidad

Guyana Jaguars will start the next Regional 50-over tournament without a title in 15 years, despite being five-time defending First-Class Champions.

Guyana has won the title nine times (twice shared) since the late Roy Fredricks scored a century in the 1980 final in Antigua when Timour Mohammed, who made Guyana’s first 50-over hundred, scored the most runs in that tournament.
Guyana reached the finals 15 times between 1973 when Clive Lloyd’s team lost to Barbados in the inaugural Regional 50 overs final and October last when they were beaten by CCC in Barbados in the last final.
In the 2005 KFC Cup, Guyana won on the Duckworth-Lewis method after the umpires stopped the game after the 49th over with two runs to get.
The Guyanese team had been offered the light earlier, but not realising they were ahead on Duckworth-Lewis, they chose to bat on, and it was enough to win the game as Neil McGarrell deposited left-arm spinner Suleman Benn for six.
Shiv Chanderpaul was Captain as Ramnaresh Sarwan scored two centuries in Barbados and another in the semis at Bourda and still owns the record for most centuries in a single tournament, ending on 462 runs.

A maiden century by Skipper Leon Johnson led them to victory over Jamaica in the semis led them to last year’s final.
But Guyana remains without a title since 2005 despite reaching nine semi-finals and three finals including in the last tournament.
But this year, ultra-cautious batting from the top order, inconstant bowling, poor shot selections, adverse weather, irresponsible and less than smart cricket and the unavalibity of key players at critical times resulted in Guyana not qualifying for the semis this time.
Tagenarine Chanderpaul, who struggled to score freely in last year’s final when he fell in the 32nd over for 56 after batting for 139 minutes and facing 95 balls, was selected as the opener.
Chanderpaul made 139 from five matches with a top score of 64 but his strike rate of 48.60 is unacceptable in this format and his selection indicated that the selectors did not pick horses for courses.
It is hoped the Shiv Chanderpaul’s new position as Manager/ Assistant Coach did not influence his son’s selection in anyway.
Trevon Griffith, who scored an attacking century in the CGI 50 overs League and is Guyana’s best fielder, should have been selected in place of the younger Chanderpaul who a well suited for four-day cricket.

Chanderpaul Hemraj, who played an array of shots in the CPL, scored Guyana’s only century in the tournament and joined Clayton Lambert, Sewnarine Chattergoon (2) and Sarwan (3) as the batsmen from Guyana with more than one ton, but his next seven innings produced just 102 runs.
Johnson managed just 147 runs from eight innings after following up 99 run out in the February edition and a ton in the October edition of the Super50 last year, Johnson only past 40 once, while making a couple of ducks and repeatedly threw his wicket attempting big shots when looking set for a big score.
Debutant Kemol Savory, saddled with the Keeping duties for the first three games, scored an unbeaten 71 from 146 balls in the first game to give Guyana a last ball victory over West Indies Emerging Players but only managed 14 in his next four innings as the top order failed to fire consistently.
Against the Windwards, Chanderpaul and Hemraj broke the 142-run Guyana record opening set by Assad Fudadin and Shimron Hetymer in 2016 in Barbados when they put together 171 for the first wicket.
However, they were soon 171-3 and in the next game turtle paced batting by the openers returned and it was back to square one.
Anthony Bramble, who opened the batting in the last match and was run out for 38 from 41 balls, missed the first three games due to a minor surgery to remove an abscess from his head forcing Savory to do the wicket-keeping duties until Bramble returned.
The batting of Chris Barnwell and Johnathon Foo were the lone bright spots for Guyana.
Barnwell’s 351 included three fifties to follow-up his 99 last year and he was the sixth highest runs scorer before the semi-finals stage.
Foo, with 334 runs and two half-centuries including an unbeaten 97 in a losing cause against the Trinis, averaged 55.66 and was among the top 10 batsmen in the tournament.
The bowling was also inconsistent with Raymon Reifer picking up the only 5-wicket haul for Guyana, but his planned departure for his wedding in Barbados left Guyana without their best all-rounder for their game against T&T which they lost.
Left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul was Guyana’s leading wicket-taker with 11 but he struggled against left-handers.
Reifer had 10 wickets from seven games and scored 172 runs including a fifty, while off-spinner Ramaal Lewis also had 10 scalps and showed potential with the bat.
Debutants 23-year-old Nial Smith and 21 year-old Renaldo Ali Mohammed proved expensive with the ball as their inexperience showed.
The banning of Ronsford Beaton for an illegal action hurt Guyana since he was their quickest and most experienced fast bowler and bowled with plenty of pace on slow tracks here, especially in the first round games against the USA.
Ali-Mohammed replaced Beaton after first choice Griffith missed one training session with a minor injury.
But because his medical was submitted late he was not selected, while Ali-Mohammed almost did not make the trip due to passport issues.
The rain caused Guyana not have any turf practice for their first two games and played a critical role in their must win game against the USA when a third stoppage moved the required run rate from 6 to 7.5.
The last over of their final match demonstrated the lack of game awareness and shot selection that plagued them throughout a tournament in which they faced the most dots balls of all the teams.
With 11 to win and Foo on 41 from 22 balls at the non-strikers’ end, Lewis instead of blocking the ball to get Foo on strike, he played a big shot resulting in a dot ball before cutting hard at the next ball and was caught behind.
The tournament was staged in the middle of the rainy season here and persistent showers, which resulted in one game being washed out and the overs being reduced in several others, also left the outfields at both match venues sluggish with batsmen not getting true value for their shots.
Seventeen centuries were scored with Darren Bravo and Kiron Powell scoring two each, while four bowlers had five-wicket hauls.
The most pleasing aspect was the return to form of Bravo who was thrown into International cricket without playing any cricket for almost two years due to personal issues and problems with the Dave Cameron led CWI.
Bravo has 464 runs (up the semi-finals) with two hundreds and two fifties, while Kiron Powell has 447 runs with a ton and four fifties (up to semis) and both can reach 500 runs. Rovman Powell is the other batsman to reach 400 runs.

 

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