Compliments of GT&T, P&P Insurance Brokers, Travel Span, Lifetime Real Estate, RHTY&SC, Camille’s Enterprise and Demerara Power & Light.
Guyana was fighting a rearguard battle against Trinidad and Tobago at the close of the third day’s play of their 2008 Carib Beer Series first round match at the Queen’s Park Oval, Trinidad.
Scores Guyana 334 and 128-4, Trinidad 401.
Batting a second time, and needing to wipe off a deficit of 67 runs, Guyana ended the day on 128-4 from 26 overs, with captain Ramnaresh Sarwan on 31 and Assad Fudadin yet to score.
They lead by 61 runs with six second innings wicket on hand and with today being the final day, an outright result is highly unlikely unless there is a batting collapse of West Indies proportions.
Earlier, Trinidad resuming on their overnight score of 273-3 in reply to Guyana’s 334 with Brian Lara not out on 115 and Keiron Pollard not out on 41, lost two quick wickets within 30 minutes of the resumption before being bowled out shortly after the tea break for 401, thereby taking first innings points.
One of those two wickets was the prized scalp of Lara, who was caught and bowled by Veerasammy Permaul just as the Trinidad Police Force’s patrol blimp passed overhead.
Lara, who made 123, faced 200 balls and struck 13 fours during his 231-minute sojourn at the wicket.
Emrit followed soon after, caught by Fudadin at forward short leg off Zaheer Mohammed.
The 20-year-old Pollard had raced to his 50 by the third over of the day.
He opened his account with a pugnacious straight drive off Brandon Bess who had a more disciplined spell.
He then struck Permaul, the West Indies under-19 left arm orthodox spinner, over long on and brought up his 50 with a neatly timed drive through the onside for two.
It took him 88 minutes of batting and he struck three fours and the same amount of sixes from 56 balls.
Pollard was fortunate to add another four to his account after Permaul on the wide long on boundary misfielded.
To add insult to injury, he struck the following delivery from Mohammed over long off for another six.
He then watched helplessly as wicket-keeper Darwin Christian flung himself to his right to come up with a magnificent one-handed catch off Bess who had struck him on the glove the previous delivery.
Pollard’s 85 came from 103 balls, with six fours and five sixes in nine minutes short of three hours.
The Guyanese, who opted to take the new ball immediately when it was due, (after 15 overs of the day’s play with Trinidad 333-5), picked up four wickets in the morning session as the home team added 82 runs.
Gibran Mohammed and his namesake Dave, went in quick succession with the former being caught and bowled by Sarwan just on the stroke of lunch for 18.
At lunch, Trinidad were 359-7, enjoying a slim lead of 25.
They extended the lead to 57 after lunch but lost two wickets in a short session that saw play being interrupted twice by rain as the Guyanese hunted quick wickets.
First to go was Dave Mohammed who was also caught at the wicket off Crandon for four and then Ravi Rampaul, who was caught and bowled by Mohammed after hitting him for four back over his head the previous delivery, for eight.
The Trinidadians brought up the 400 after tea with a streaky edge through the point region by Amit Jaggernauth that went for four.
Jaggernauth was then caught by Mohammed off Crandon without scoring as the Trinidadians were dismissed for 401 from 98.2 overs.
Richard Kelly was unbeaten on 30.
Mohammed finished with 4-78 whilst Crandon (2-74) and Permaul (2-100) offered support.
Sarwan took 1-8 and Bess, who bowled 22 no balls out of the 24 bowled by the Guyanese, 1-102.
When Guyana began their second innings, they quickly lost first innings century-maker Sewnarine Chattergoon, who was caught by Lendl Simmons at mid on for four as he attempted to drive Kelly.
The score was then 15-1 and Travis Dowlin in partnership with former Guyana and West Indies under-19 captain Leon Johnson posted 28 for the second wicket before Emrit had a double strike to put his team back in contention.
Dowlin, who was looking well set for a big total, played some handsome drives and pulls for his score of 28. But after pulling Emrit to the backward square leg boundary for four, he was trapped on the crease by Emrit’s following delivery and was adjudged lbw.
He struck four fours during his 42 minutes stay at the wicket facing 27 balls in the process.
It was not long before Johnson followed him caught by wicketkeeper Gibran Mohammed also off Emrit for 10 to leave Guyana tottering on 48-3. This brought Sarwan to the wicket and he opened his account in typical Sarwan style, square cutting Emrit to the point boundary for four.
Narsingh Deonarine, who was on a pair, started cautiously but then opened up his shoulders and took the attack to the Trinidadian bowlers. He struck Emrit for four through the covers and followed it up with a flick over square leg for another boundary in an over that went for 13 runs.
When Dave Mohammed replaced Emrit, Deonarine pulled him over long on for the first six to be struck by a Guyanese in this match and followed it up with a magnificent drive through the cover area for another four as the Guyanese posted their 100 from 18.1 overs.
However, coming towards close of play, Jaggernauth had him caught by Lara at first slip for 46. He faced 51 balls and struck seven fours and one six during his 76-minute vigil at the wicket.
Shortly after his departure, the umpires offered light to the batsmen Sarwan and Fudadin who accepted.
Emrit has so far taken 2-35 whilst Jaggernauth has 1-4 and Kelly 1-21. Play is expected to start at 0930h today to make up for time lost due to rain and bad light.
