Leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo etched his name into the history books of Regional first-class cricket by becoming the first Guyanese to capture 15 wickets in a match, putting his team in a probable winning position requiring 208-runs to attain their first win in this year’s West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) 4-day tournament against Trinidad and Tobago.
Playing at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, the home side chasing a target of 225 after bowling the visitors out for 212 in 59.4 overs were 17 for 1 heading into the final day today after losing opener Trevon Griffith for 13. Tagenarine Chanderpaul was not out on 3 and night-watchman Bishoo was yet to come off the mark.
Bishoo looked like the leg-spinner of old who surged to cricket superstardom a few years ago grabbed
9 for 78 in the first innings and returned in the second to completely raze the Trinidad line up picking up 6 for 71 from 22.4 overs his 12th five-wicket haul ending with a record 15 for 149 the best by any Guyanese bowler. He trails Barbados’ Ryan Hinds (15-102), St Kitts’ Deryck Parry (15-101) and Trinidad’s Rajendra Dhanraj (16-167) who were the other bowlers to achieve the feat of 15 wickets or more.
Fast bowler Keon Joseph who bowled consistently throughout the match claimed 1 for 53 in the first innings but was more potent in the second picking up 4 for 55 ending with figures of 5 for 108. Resuming on their overnight score of 247 for 7, Zaheer Mohamed-Shadir (58) who was on 37 heading into day three, scored his fourth first-class half-century before Trinidad skipper Rayad Emrit had him and pacer Ronsford Beaton (1) respectively out caught.
Bishoo, who scored a defiant 27 then had his stumps uprooted by Shannon Gabriel leaving Joseph not out on 5. Leg-spinner Amit Jaggernauth was the pick of the bowlers finishing with 4 for 78 from 24 overs while Emrit accounted for three wickets as Guyana were bowled out for 282 in reply to Trinidad’s first innings score of 294 after 47 minutes of play on the third morning still trailing the tourist by 12 runs.
All-rounder Jason Mohammed struck three boundaries in his top score of 33 while make-shift opener wicket-keeper Steven Katwaroo (32) who was promoted up the order due to Evin Lewis’ injury, Imran Khan (29), Lendl Simmons (25), Marlon Richards (25) and Emrit (20) all made starts but failed to carry on.
Openers Simmons and Katwaroo started proceedings in aggressive manner with respective boundaries off Beaton, Joseph and Chris Barnwell. Simmons was given a life when a diving Leon Johnson failed to hang on to a fairly difficult catch in the slip cordon but amends were made by Joseph who had the West Indies top-order batsman bowled in the 11th over of the day, but were still solidly placed on 49 for 1 with a lead of 61 runs heading into lunch.
After a few more flurry of boundaries the menacing Bishoo returned to immediately have Darren Bravo trapped LBW for 8, picking up his 10th wicket of the match. Katwaroo after digging in for 92 minutes and hitting six fours was removed in similar fashion to Bravo but off the bowling of Joseph as Trinidad slid to 77 for 3.
Bishoo snared the 200th wicket of his first-class career when Evin Lewis (12) held out to Vishaul Singh in the deep. Jonathan Augustus (2) attempting a sweep shot was nabbed LBW by the leg-spinner, followed by Mohamed who was caught by Mohammed as the ex-West Indies spinner bagged three more victims.
At 143 for 6 heading into tea Imran Khan and skipper Emrit sought to rebuild after the leg-spinner picked up from where he left off with the ball from the first innings. Second over after the tea break Emrit was clean bowled by Bishoo to claim his fifth wicket of the innings as the rain stopped play at 15:17hrs.
The match resumed at 15:40hrs Richards, who hit Bishoo for a six over the cover region, then launched an assault on Shadir breaking one of the windows in the media center after clobbering the off-spinner for a huge straight six. Joseph then struck in the following over trapping the dangerous Richards LBW leaving the score at 183 for 8.
The former West Indies Under-19 pacer then removed the stubborn Khan who was caught by Shadir, while Jaggernauth was pinned LBW by Bishoo leaving Gabriel stranded yet to come off the mark as their innings came to an end.
The action continues today at 9:00hrs.
