CWI’s PCL Four-day league Jaguars aim to hurt Red Force at Providence

Jan 23, 2020 Sports

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Ali-Mohamed in for injured Reifer

By Sean Devers

Off of contrasting results from their last matches, leaders Trinidad & Tobago’s Red Force face-off with five-times defending Champions Guyana in their own backyard in the third round of the 2020 Regional First-Class season from 10:00hrs today at Providence.

At the Kensington Oval in Barbados, the Bajans secured a seven-wicket win against Guyana, while the Red Force blew away the Leewards by an innings and 168 runs in South Trinidad.
T&T are early leaders with 29.6 points after drawing their opening game against Jamaica in Trinidad, while the Jaguars mauled the Leewards by 10 wickets in Antigua in the first round and are in fourth place with 24.8 points.
Last season the Trinis were one of three teams that managed to beat the 11 times Champions; their last five titles coming in consecutive years, while last year’s win in Port-of-Spain was T&T’s only win against Guyana in 10 matches.
Trinidad & Tobago has won five titles but none since Daren Ganga led them to the 2006 Carib Beer title and today they battle the Jaguars, back in familiar conditions after several of their batsmen were hit with short balls on a two-paced track in Barbados.
Both teams will be without their West Indies players who have been allowed to miss this round after competing against Ireland.
The Red Force comes to South America with a powerful batting line up which produced totals of 552-9 declared against the Leewards and 460-4 declared against Jamaica who made the other ‘400’ total when they scored 404-8 declared against the Windwards.

Guyana’s 388 in Antigua is fifth highest total after Barbados made 389 against the Guyanese.
In a tournament that has produced eight centuries in the first two rounds, a major worry for the Jaguars is that although five batsmen have scored half-centuries, none has converted to a three-figure score.
In contrast, Daren Bravo, Joshua De Silva, Yannick Cariah and Terrence Hinds (batting at number nine) have all scored centuries for the Red Force.

The tournament’s highest partnership is 160 and was made twice by Red Force batsmen (Da Silva & Cariah for the 5th wicket) and (Bravo & Jason Mohammed for the 3rd wicket), while Chris Barnwell and Raymon Reifer who put together 111 for the 5th wicket in Antigua is the only Guyanese pair to register a three-figure stand.
The Red Force have travelled with an unchanged squad from their last match and their Coach, former Test pacer Mervyn Dillion said that although his team’s batting has been producing big scores, Guyana have always been a tough team to beat.

“Last year was the first time that we have beaten them since this Franchise League started and on their home pitch we are in for a fight. We have not won a First-Class title in last 15 years but we are ready for this match and will try our best to maintain our lead in the tournament,” said the 45-year-old Dillon who taken 131 wickets from 38 Tests.
When asked about the importance of Daren Bravo to the Red Force?
Dillion explained that while Bravo’s experience and present form adds value to the team, Bravo is not the T&T Red Force team and he expects if everyone can play as a team and contribute their best effort this could be the year his charges can break their long Championship drought.

Today on a track with far less bounce than the one in Barbados and Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Guyana’s leading run scorer with 146 runs from four innings could be very hard to dislodge if he bats in his usual ultra-cautious manner.
His unbeaten 66 in Antigua lasted 404 minutes but despite him being the glue that holds the innings together he will want to rotate the strike a bit more and go on to get a century after reaching fifty twice so far.

Chanderpaul Hemraj is one the five batsmen with a fifty and his positive stroke-play makes him the ideal partner for the rock solid Chanderpaul.
Skipper Leon Johnson is another batsman who has failed to carry-on from a fifty and will want to lead from the front with bat, while Barnwell who made 82 in Antigua is batting well and a lot will be depended on him.
Vishaul Singh (who made 79 in Barbados) and Anthony Bramble and Kevin Sinclair, who made his debut in Barbados and looked good and along with Devendra Bishoo, Veerasammy Permaul and Nial Smith, are capable of contributing important runs.
Rookie pacer Nial Smith (10 Wkts) has the second most wickets after two matches and along with Keon Joseph (8) are both quick and could ‘hustle’ the Trinis even on the Providence surface which should favour the spinners as the match progress.
In addition to Romario Shepherd, Shimron Hetmyer and Sherfane Rutherford (Resting) and Keemo Paul (injured), Guyana will also be without left-arm seamer Raymon Reifer who is still in Barbados after being hit on his helmet in the last round.
Leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo, who missed the last game due minor injury, and need another nine wickets for 250 Regional First-Class victims, while Left-arm spinner Permaul has eight wickets so far and should do the bulk of bowling for Guyana if the Red Force makes a big score.
Sinclair’s off-breaks needs to be a bit more attacking in spin, pace and line in four-day day cricket if he hopes to take wickets at this level. But at 20 he is still learning his art and he is a work in progress.
Renaldo Mohammed has been included in the squad but Guyana could leave out him and Joshua Persuad today and replace Reifer with Bishoo.
Only Jamaica’s Paul Palmer (262) has more runs than Bravo (199), arguable the best batsman in the West Indies when in top form. The elegant left-hander could be Guyana’s biggest threat in this game. Bravo will look for support from Da Silva (193), Cariah, Mohammed, Jeremy Solozano and Kegan Simmons.
Akeal Hosein is the tournament’s leading bowler with 15 wickets, while Oden Smith and Brian Charles both have six wickets and along with Hinds the new kid on the block, could offer pace support.

 

 

 

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