KINGSTOWN, St Vincent, CMC – Discarded West Indies off-spinner Shane Shillingford forced himself into reckoning for the Zimbabwe series when he routed Guyana to set up a four-wicket victory for Windward Islands here yesterday.
The right-armer, who has been overlooked since the tour of England last summer, grabbed seven for 64 in a superb spell to send Guyana tumbling to 211 all out on the penultimate day of their third round match in the Regional Four-Day Championship at the Arnos Vale Stadium.
He finished the game with match figures of 11 for 104.
Only Zaheer Shadir, who stroked 61, showed any fight while Tagenarine Chanderpaul (33) and captain Leon Johnson (31) played supporting roles.
Set 87 for victory, drama then ensued as the Windwards were forced to survive some nervous stutters before reaching their target.
Another out-of-favour spinner Devendra Bishoo twirled his leg-breaks to claim three for 19 while off-spinner Steven Jacobs picked up three for 40, to engineer panic in the Windwards camp.
In the end, however, the experienced Andre Fletcher steered them home with a matured unbeaten 30 that occupied 44 balls in 71 minutes, with five boundaries.
In-form opener Devon Smith chipped in with 25 while Dalton Polius, whose 33-run, fourth wicket stand with Fletcher spared the Windwards blushes, made 21.
The fireworks had taken place earlier when Shillingford ploughed through the Guyana innings after the visitors resumed at 49 for two.
Opener Chanderpaul and captain Johnson extended their second wicket stand to 37 before they were separated when Shillingford trapped Johnson lbw, to add to his two wickets from overnight.
With one run added at 73 for four, left-arm seamer Kenroy Peters removed West Indies batsman Assad Fudadin for one and when Jacobs (10) and Chanderpaul were dismissed with the score on 86, Guyana were in strife.
However, Zaheer Shadir then propped up the Guyana innings with two important partnerships. He put on 48 for the seventh wicket with Derwin Christian (12) before adding a further 45 for the eighth wicket with Bishoo who got 24.
Zaheer played an excellent counter-attacking innings, spanking ten fours off 85 balls in 108 minutes at the crease.
The win was the Windwards’ third in as many games, moving them to 36 points in the competition.