Half centuries from Shemroy Barrington and Gajanand Singh, along with spells of good bowling, added some spark to an otherwise ordinary day of cricket at the GCC Ground, Bourda, yesterday.
Barrington, who had squandered his chances in the national side with meagre returns with the bat in the first two matches of the current WICB First Class tournament, scored an enterprising 64. He stroked seven fours and a six in his innings while sharing in a half century first wicket partnership with former West Indies Under-19 batsman Trevon Griffith, who made 39.
Singh, on the other hand, held up one end of Veerasammy Permaul XI’s innings as wickets fell at regular intervals around him. In the end Singh
was left unbeaten on 51 and the team closed their account at 218 all out from 79.3 overs.
Left arm spinner for Leon Johnson’s XI, Totaram Bishun, was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3-19 from nine overs while he received support from Royston Crandon (2-6), Steven Latcha (2-31) and Amir Khan (2-65).
When the Johnson XI took to the crease they lost opener Rajendra Chandrika immediately when he was trapped lbw playing across an Esaun Crandon delivery for nought. Subsequently, right handed Richard Ramdeen and left handed Johnson settled in and took their team to 27-1 from seven overs.
Ramdeen (not out 10) and Johnson (not out 7) were vigilant, especially when deliveries were pitched outside their off stump. Crandon ended day one with 1-11 from his four overs.
Meanwhile, coach Mark Harper said that he was pleased with the application of Singh and also referred to the innings of Barrington and Griffith. However, he said that he would have liked to see a batsman going to score a century.
He was adamant though that this might be the case today, stating that he hopes today is a better day for the batsmen.
Also commenting on Assad Fudadin, Harper said that he was suffering from “a slight cold.”
