Guyana’s cricket team endured a miserable first innings against the England Lions who made mincemeat of them on day two of their WICB Regional Four Day match at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.
Lead by Christopher Woakes who produced a terrific spell to claim a five-wicket haul which included a hat-trick, the English team dismissed Guyana for 78 in 37.4 overs then reached 42 – 0 from six overs in reply before bad light stopped play with another nine overs remaining in the day’s play.
England Lions, who won the toss and sent the Guyanese in to take first strike, need just 37 runs to claim first innings points.
Yesterday was another rain-interrupted day and play got underway until after lunch at 1:30pm to be precise with some 55 overs to be bowled.
The other England pacer, James Harris, supported admirably by rocking the top order and grabbing three important wickets while Jade Dernbach chipped in with two wickets.
Guyana captain Assad Fudadin was the first to go when he fell lbw to Woakes for one then the other opener Rajendra Chandrika was caught and bowled by Harris for seven to leave the home side at 24 – 2.
Leon Johnson looked good for his 24 before he was removed by a Harris delivery that was edged to Andrew Gale in the slip cordon. Narsingh Deonarine was the fourth casualty when he was trapped lbw to Dernbach for 11 with the score on 58.
Gajanand Singh got careless and flashed at a very wide delivery from Harris was caught by wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter with the score still on 58.
Derwin Christian and Vishual Singh attempted to repair the early damage but Singh was unable to settle. He was dropped by Kieswetter off Dernbach for no score but became the first victim of Woakes’ hat-trick the very next over.
Woakes nabbed four wickets in the space of five balls with the score on 69.
Singh was caught at first slip by James Hildreth; Versammy Permaul edged one to Adam Lyth at third slip while Zaheer Mohammed popped one in the air to Gale at gully to complete the hat-trick while two balls later Brandon Bess nicked one to Kieswetter.
Derwin Christian stood at the other end and was resistant for his 17 but got carried away after slapping Dernbach for two consecutive boundaries. He
was caught by the wicketkeeper, slashing at another wide delivery attempting to go for a boundary.
At the commencement of England’s reply Keiswetter and Lyth attacked the Guyanese debutant Ronsford Beaton as his two overs cost 25 runs.
Keiswetter and Lyth are overnight on 21 and 17 respectively.
