Guyana must avoid defeat against English to remain in semifinal contention

Mar 11, 2011 Sports

By Sean Devers

First innings points from their drawn game against Barbados leaves Guyana still in the race for their first First-Class title since 1998, but they must avoid defeat and hope for a first innings lead against England Lions in their fifth round Regional Four-day game which starts today at Providence.
Guyana begin today’s game with 13 points, ahead of only Barbados (12) and the Leewards (3). Ideally the Guyanese would hope that the Barbados/Windward’s game in Barbados ends in a draw and that defending Champions Jamaica beat the Windwards outright in their fifth round clash.
Jamaica (36), Trinidad & Tobago (33) and the Lions (30) should qualify for the ‘final four’ while Guyana will hope to overtake CCC (27), the Windwards (23) and keep Barbados behind them going into the last two rounds after this one.
The adverse weather, the docile Providence track and England Lions’ penchant for massive totals in their second West Indies First-Class tournament could combine to prevent an outright win in this match.
Guyana will miss their leading bowler Davendra Bishoo who has been called up for the World Cup and the English will fancy their chances of another big total especially since four of their batsmen are among the top ten in the batting averages this season.
Only Marlon Samuels (595) has more runs than James Taylor’s 421, while fellow Englishman Craig Kieswetter, who has two centuries in 355 runs and Jimmy Adams (309) are among nine batsmen with over 300 runs. Skipper James Hildreth (288) has also batted solidly this season.
The tourist beat the Leewards by an innings and 120 runs, drew with Barbados, T&T and CCC after taking first innings points in all of their games.
Guyana lost to Jamaica after taking first innings points, had their match against the Leewards washed out without a ball being bowled, lost to the Windwards and drew with Barbados after taking first innings points but their bowlers have enjoyed a good season so far.
Without test players Shiv Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan (West indies duties) and Sewnarine Chattergoon and Narsingh Deonarine, Guyana’s batting has let them down with only Skipper Assad Fudadin, Leon Johnson and Vishaul Singh managing to reach a half-century although Opener Rajendra Chandrika
fell three short in the opening match.
Deonarine could replace Royston Crandon who has been disappointing while Steven Jacobs could replace Gajanand Singh in the final eleven from the last game.
Off-spinner Zaheer Mohamed comes in for his first match this season to replace Bishoo while Test pacer Brendon Bess and debutant teenager pacer Ronsford Beaton should share the new ball.
Guyana has won 69 and lost 82 of their 274 First-Class matches since their first in 1865. They have a win and a draw against England ‘A’ with both games being played in the 2001 Busta Cup Regional four-day competition.
After playing to a draw in Grenada in the preliminary round when Sarwan scored 122, the Guyanese, led by a second innings seven wicket haul from Reon King, five in the first from Carl Hooper and another century from Sarwan, beat the English by seven wickets in the semifinals at Bourda.
A decade later, the South Americans are rebuilding a team and how well they bat can determine the outcome of this contest.
Fudadin has played 37 matches and Johnson 22 at this level and will need to dig deep mentally to score their maiden First-Class hundreds. Chandrika will also need to build on good starts, while Vishal Singh could provide the glue to hold the middle order together as Deonarine tries to do the bulk of the scoring.
Wicketkeeper Derwin Christian’s only first class ton was on this ground two seasons ago and he will need to curb his impetuous shot selection which has too often orchestrated his demise.
Only CCC’s Ryan Austin has more than Jade Dernbach’s 17 wickets and he and Danny Briggs (15) wickets will hope to make inroads into the Guyana batting.
Bess has bowled with improved control this season while Permaul has 15 wickets and along with Mohamed, could do the bulk of the bowling for the home team in this match. Admission is $500 and play is scheduled to commence at 10:00hrs each day.

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