By Colin Benjamin
in Barbados
Guyana will enter their final Group A match today versus the Windward Islands staring at 20:00hrs and it may seem as if the team has come full circle.
One year ago on January 18th in the 2011 Caribbean Twenty20 at the Kensington Oval aptly termed the “Mecca of Caribbean Cricket” the “Amazon Conquerors” faced these same opponents in a must-win game.
On that evening Darren Sammy’s side scored 138/8 and restricted the then Ramnaresh Sarwan led Guyana side to 136/9 to clinch a tense two-run victory en route to eliminating Guyana – the then Caribbean Twenty20 champions – in the preliminary round of the competition.
Fast forward one year since that tournament, after a year of below par on-field performances and off-field squabbles in the administration of local cricket, the team faces the Windwards again in a game in which they must be victorious by a wide margin to clinch a semi-final place or face the disaster of exiting in the first stage of this competition for the second consecutive year.
Of the respective playing XIs from last year’s match, the current Guyana squad is without Sarwan, openers Travis Dowlin and Richard Ramdeen, medium pacer Esan Crandon and the big hitting Johnathan Foo, while the Windward’s squad just has one absentee in medium pacer Mervyn Matthews and off-spinner Shane Shillingford was absent due to his bowling action being called into question at the time.
Speaking to Stabroek Sport after Guyana’s win against Canada, captain Christopher Barnwell spoke about the game and what he hopes the team can accomplish in today’s encounter.
Professional manner
“This (the Canada game) was an important game for us to come and win regardless of them being weak opponents and by chasing down the target in 17 overs, I thought we accomplished this task in a very professional manner. Good job from the bowlers also, we gave away a few runs at the end of their innings and maybe we could have restricted them to a lower total – but overall I thought we bowled and fielded as a unit well,” said Barnwell confidently.
He continued: “In chasing the target we needed a good start and young Trevon Griffith in partnership with Sewnarine Chattergoon got us that start and then the experience of Shiv and Deonarine saw us home.”
In light of the Leeward Islands versus Windwards clash, the Guyanese team stayed on that watch in the hope of the Leewards causing an upset which would have made things easier for them today. This wasn’t to be and when asked what would be the plan for the Windwards now, Barnwell while highlighting that the team wants to keep their cards close to their chest, did give away a hint.
“We would have loved for the Leewards to cause an upset so we can just focus on winning (today) by whatever margin, instead of worrying how big a win we need. But that’s out of our control and as I mentioned before all we can do is play 40 overs of clinical cricket, Kensington is a great batting wicket and it would be great for our team with its long batting to preferably win the toss and send them in – restrict them to a small total and chase them down, which may assist us in the run rate situation,” explained Barnwell.
Finally, given the magnitude of the game, he was asked whether he is looking towards someone like Chanderpaul to produce a heroic performance, Barnwell answered in the affirmative.
“Most definitely, he is a great player and a great individual performance from him will certainly go a long way in helping us to win, but this isn’t a one- man team. Deonarine showed with his half-century that he is batting well too, so we all as a batting unit along with Shiv have to bring our A-Game on Thursday.”
Team cricket operation officer Robin Singh also highlighted that depending on what happens in the Trinidad versus Canada game, an official from the West Indies Cricket Board will be present with the team during the Windwards game to update them ball by ball and over by over on what they need to do to win the game.
Players to watch
For Guyana it most certainly is Shivnarine Chanderpaul. In the absence of Ramnaresh Sarwan, in this key clash once Chanderpaul makes a big score it will ease the nerves of the Guyanese players, which will in turn aid them in performing well. If he departs early, things could become problematic. A big performance will also be expected from West Indies leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo in the bowling.
For the Windward Islands the likes of their much maligned West Indies captain Darren Sammy, the spin duo of off-spinner Shane Shillingford and left-arm spinner Gary Mathurin along with aggressive opener Johnson Charles are their trump cards.
As a captain at the regional level Sammy clearly brings the best out of his teammates and is a very dangerous hitter with the bat. How the Guyanese batsmen play the Shillingford/Mathurin spin combo will be an important aspect of the match, since they have the ability to both suffocate and run through any batting line-up in this tournament.
The spinners in Guyana’s bowling attack must be wary of bowling to Charles in the first six overs of fielding restriction, given his propensity to play the big shots on a regular basis.
Guyana squad:
Christopher Barnwell (captain), Ronsford Beaton, Devendra Bishoo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Derwin Christian (wicket-keeper), Royston Crandon, NarsinghDeonarine, Trevon Griffith, Delon Heyliger, Rajiv Ivan, Steven Jacobs, Leon Johnson, and Veerasammy Permaul.
Windward Islands squad:
Darren Sammy (captain), Miles Bascombe, Tade Carmichael, Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, Lynson James, Delorn Johnson, Keddy Lesporis, Gary Mathurin, Nelon Pascal, Kenroy Peters, Liam Sebastien, Shane
Shillingford, and Devon Smith.
Group A POINTS STANDINGS
Teams Mat Won Lost Tied N/R Pts Net RR
Windward Is 3 3 0 0 0 12 +1.013
Trinidad & T 3 2 1 0 0 8 +3.008
Guyana 3 2 1 0 0 8 +0.152
Leeward Is 4 1 3 0 0 4 -2.024
Canada 3 0 3 0 0 0 -1.748
