Opener Tagenarine Chanderpaul stroked an unbeaten 113 for Demerara yesterday, steering them to a first innings score of 253 for 3 against the President’s XI in the final round of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Under-19 3-day tournament at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) ground, Bourda.
The left-hander carved 13 boundaries in his classy knock and batted for over a little over five hours sharing a 135-run opening partnership with fellow opener Brian Sattaur who batted for an uncharacteristic 100 minutes, hammering nine boundaries in an established 165-ball 67. All-rounder Sherfane Rutherford, who scored a brisk 44 from 83-balls, lent support to the two openers.
At stumps, Chanderpaul and Deonarine Seegobin (4*) were unbeaten heading into the second day. Right-arm off-spinner Damion Waldron was the man with the ball for President’s XI grabbing 3 for 63 from a gruelling 32 overs, operating with the red ball since before the lunch break.
Demerara won the toss and elected to bat under some overcast weather with openers Chanderpaul and Sattaur looking to make amends from the last match. The two batted sensibly through the lunch period taking the score to 61 without loss, with Sattaur being the obvious aggressor out of the two, smacking five fours in his score of 35.
The young Chanderpaul was his usual watchful self, acquiring three fours in his 19 going into the afternoon session. Upon the resumption of lunch the pair motored on and Sattaur raced to a 129-ball half-century with a four, soon raising his bat to signal a responsible score after failing in the previous game.
The 100-run partnership between the two left-handers came in 44th over with Chanderpaul not long afterwards bringing up a patient 50 from 135 balls as Demerara sought to further ground and pound the President’s XI bowlers. The breakthrough came in the 52nd over when Sattaur was caught by Ronaldo Mohamed off the bowling of Waldron.
Demerara were well placed at 169 for 1 at tea and upon resumption of play Rutherford and Chanderpaul drove merrily along picking up the singles and twos along with the occasional boundary. Quick strikes by Waldron saw him trapping Rutherford LBW followed by the wicket of Rudolph Singh (6) who was caught and bowled in Waldron’s wicket maiden 29th over.
At 221 for 3, Chanderpaul crept closer to his ton with new man Seegobin as his partner. The 18-year-old then brought up his century with a commanding pull shot for four. His century required 250 deliveries with 11 fours from an astonishing 4 ½ hours.
The pair confidentially pushed on towards the end of play in the final session of the day, both holding up their respective ends. The action continues today at 9:30hrs.
