By Delvon Mc Ewan
Attacking half centuries from Shimron Hetmyer and Kemo Paul steered Guyana to a comfortable victory over the Windward Islands at the Albion Community Development Centre ground yesterday the penultimate round of the final of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Regional Under-19 Limited Overs Tournament.
Hetmyer (86) and Paul (51) helped their team post their highest total, 276-5 in 50 overs, of the tournament while the visitors responded with 162 all out in 41.3 overs.
There were two high points of the Guyana innings the first a partnership worth 129 runs between the West Indies U-19 opening
pair of Shimron Hetmyer and Tagenarine Chanderpaul. Hetmyer known for his aggressive batting, dominated the partnership, racing to his half century from 49 deliveries with five fours. After Hetmyer reached his milestone, Guyana’s scoring rate declined as the hosts reached three figures in 24.4 overs, with Hetmyer on 62 and Chanderpaul on 31.
The Windwards’ first breakthrough came in the 32nd over when Chanderpaul (43) was caught by Shermon Lewis on the mid-wicket boundary off Derron Hypolite’s bowling. Some 15 runs later, Hetmyer was caught by the mid-on fielder for 86 from 114 balls as he miscued a full toss from Lewis.
Paul was to provide the second high pont of the innings. He came to the crease at Hetmyer’s demise and duly smashed 51 off 32 balls. His innings included two fours and the same amount of sixes and he shared in a 60-run, fourth-wicket partnership with Homraj who made 28 from 20 balls. It was Paul’s fourth half century in five matches, with his only failure, being seven runs, made against the Jamaicans. That innings also increased his aggregate to 269 and he remains the leading scorer in the tournament.
Renaldo Ali-Mohamed also supported with an unbeaten cameo of 30 from 13 balls in the closing overs. He combined with Kemol Savoury for an unbroken 35-run, sixth-wicket stand before the locals’ innings ended. Lewis 2-72 and John 2-56 from nine and 10 overs respectively, were the leading wicket takers for their team.
Balchand Baldeo spearheaded Guyana’s target defence by picking up 3-35 from 10 overs. He was supported by Sharaz Ramcharan, who collected two wickets. Kershaskie Lewis top scored for the Windwards with 42 while their skipper Roland Cato and John supported with 38 and 34 respectively.
The victory was the fifth in succession for the host, who will face Barbados today at the National Stadium from 9:30 a.m in their final round match.
