My batting is important to the team says Shepherd ‘We would have loved the batters to bat through the innings’- Shiv

Feb 10, 2021 Sports

By Sean Devers

Hetmyer and Shepherd scored fifties to help Jaguars beat B’dos.

Kaieteur News – Guyana Jaguars began their Regional Super50 campaign by beating runners-up Barbados Pride by 56 runs on the D/L/S method on Monday night in Antigua in the second round of the 2021.
At the small Coolidge ground, only three Guyanese batsmen reached 15 but that was enough to earn them victory when rain stopped play for a second and final time with the Bajans on 91-5 off 29.3 overs.
After an attacking 35 with five fours and a six from Chanderpaul Hemraj, who dominated a 48-run opening stand with Assad Fudadin (5 from 24 balls), the Jaguars slipped to 88-5 before Shimron Hetmyer who clobbered eight fours and four sixes in an explosive 53-ball 80 and Romario Shepherd’s unbeaten 58 which was decorated with six fours and two sixes, rallied the Jaguars to 235 all out in 41.1 overs.
Off-Spinner Kevin Sinclair took 2-17 from 7.3 overs, while Shepherd captured 1-17 from five overs to take the Man-of-the-Match Award.
Shepherd, one of seven Berbicans in the Jaguars’ starting X1, was ruled out the West Indies tour of Bangladesh after he was tested positive for the Covid-19 virus.

Manager, Assistant Coach Shiv Chanderpaul

“Being tested positive when I had no symptoms and missing the Bangladesh tour was kind of hard for me but then I understood that the reason was out of my control,” said the 26-year-old all-rounder who plays for Tucber Park in Berbice club cricket.
Shepherd, who played the first of his five ODIs against Afghanistan at Lucknow on November 6, 2019, has scored one century and four fifties in 25 First-Class games and spoke of the value placed on his ability with the bat by the Jaguars.
“My batting is really important in this team because everyone is expecting runs from me in the position I am batting and they know how well I can bat.
I have worked really hard on my batting over the past couple of seasons and now I am getting some runs,” explained Shepherd after getting his maiden half-century in his 30th List ‘A’ game.
Shepherd, who has four ODI wickets and 37 at List ‘A’ levels, already had a wicket with the Bajans on 91-5 when rain washed out the game with the West Indies pacer well set for his first five-wicket haul.
“No I was not disappointed when rain washed out the game at that stage. Even though I was bowling well we were in front on the Duckworth/Lewis so we had already won the game. It would have been nice to get a few more wickets but winning is more important than personal glory,” said Shepherd who is builtlike a heavyweight Boxer.
Shepherd informed that after the first rain break Guyana Jaguars Skipper Leon Johnson asked him for two good overs.
“And I did just that!” disclosed Shepherd, who has represented West Indies, Chennai Super Kings, Guyana, Guyana Amazon Warriors, Guyana Under-19s, West Indies A, West Indies Cricket Board President’s XI and West Indies President’s XI.
“Yeah, we believed that was a good score because we know the average score at the ground is just around 200 so we just had to bowl well,” continued Shepherd.
Asked how the players were dealing mentally with the pandemic bubble.
“Well everyone was excited about the tournament and looking forward to playing cricket so being in the bubble was not a big worry for us,” Shepherd concluded.
Meanwhile, former Guyana and West Indies batsman Shiv Chanderpaul, who is the Manager/ Assistant Coach of the Jaguars, felt Hetmyer and Shepherd both batted excellently.
“But we would have loved them to bat out all the overs but it didn’t happen. So there are a few things that we need to work on, especially batting longer and converting starts in big scores. But it is always good to start with a win, we felt we had enough to work with,” said Chanderpaul who was the Captain when Guyana beat Barbados at Bourda in 2005 when they won their last title.