…Pacers Garraway and Benn destructive on first day
By Marlon Munroe
Inter-County cricket minnows Essequibo are in firm grip of proceedings, mainly due to the destructive bowling of a duo of pacers Trevor Benn (3-18) and Trevon Garraway (4-62) on the first day of the Guyana Cricket Board’s (GCB) Senior Four-day tournament.
Batting first at the Anna Regina Community Centre ground, Demerara were routed for a paltry 119.
At the end of day, after bad light stopped play, Essequibo had already reached 109-4 from 44 overs, trailing by 10 runs.
Delon Heyligar is undefeated on 35 from 85 minutes while night-watchman Garraway is yet to get off the mark.
Essequibo owed their good position to a dogged half century partnership between Heyligar and Yogeshwar Lall (31).
Lall batted for 118 minutes and faced 111 balls and the partnership placed Essequibo in the driver’s seat after Christopher Barnwell had rocked them back on their heels by grabbing the first two wickets for just 18 runs.
Earlier, Demerara won the toss and batted on a pitch that provided favourable bounce but Benn and Garraway routed Demerara’s top five batsmen for just 37.
Benn in his debut Inter-County game took three of those wickets while national fast bowler Garraway had Leon Johnson caught by Lennox Andrews for 4 (19-3) and Steven Jacobs caught by Delon Heyligar for two.
Shemroy Barrington (7), Rajendra Chandrika (2) and Christopher Barnwell (16), one of four batsmen who reached double figures, were Benn’s victims.
However, a 31-run sixth wicket partnership between West Indies middle order batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan, who batted at number seven, and Krishna Deosarran that lasted 10 overs in 55 helped calm the nerves of the Demerara players.
Sarwan, was looking quite comfortable but after playing an exquisite cover drive off Benn he was brilliantly caught by Garraway diving to his left in the extra cover region for 31.
His knock lasted for 58 minutes and included four boundaries from 65 balls (96-8).
Garraway ended with figures of 15.3-2-62-4 and Benn 9-5-18-3 while Andrew Williams and Anthony Adams took one wicket each.
In Essequibo’s turn at the crease Barnwell and debutant Leon Scott also extracted bounce as they worked up some fierce pace. Balls flew past the noses of the batsmen as the pacers bent their backs. Some five minutes before tea Norman Fredericks was caught behind by Perry off a Barnwell delivery that lifted on him.
At tea, Essequibo were 18-1.
Opening batsman Mohindra Boodram was dropped twice on zero and seven by Johnson at second slip and Jacobs at gully respectively.
He was eventually caught behind by Perry off a fired up Barnwell for nine.
Barnwell finished with two wickets while Mohammed and Jacobs finished with one apiece.
