By Delvon Mc Ewan
Propelled by centuries from West Indies Under-19 players Tagenarine Chanderpaul and Shimron Hetmyer, Guyana finished unbeaten in the round robin stage of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Regional U-19 one day tournament after a comprehensive victory over Barbados yesterday at the National Stadium.
Hetmyer and Chanderpaul stroked 123 and an unbeaten 103 respectively to set a huge total of 298-5 off 50 overs for their team. The Guyana team, who will face the Windward Islands tomorrow in the final, then returned to bowl out the Bajans for 254 in 50 overs.
The two left-handed batsmen, Hetmyer and Chanderpaul, shared in an opening stand of 176 that came in 29.4 overs before the more attacking of the two,
Hetmyer was dismissed for 123. Hetmyer, who struck 18 boundaries in his innings, followed up his 86 made against the Windwards the day before at the Albion Community Development Centre ground. It was also his third consecutive innings that he went past 50 as he also scored 75 against Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday at Bourda.
Hetmyer brought up his century with a boundary off left arm orthodox spinner Matthew Jones that was steered down to the ropes at the third man area. The visitors finally got a breakthrough when Hetmyer was bowled by Jones after he had hit three successive boundaries off the said bowler’s first three deliveries in the over.
When Hetmyer was removed after facing 102 balls, Chanderpaul was on 46. The son of West Indies player Shivnarine Chanderpaul was joined by skipper Brian Sattaur and the pair added 81 runs for the second wicket. Chanderpaul progressed slowly but surely towards his first century in the limited overs version of the competition. However, before he reached that milestone, Guyana suffered the loss of three wickets. Sattaur was run out for 38 from 36 deliveries, while Kemo Paul and Askay Homraj made 19 and nought respectively.
Chanderpaul duly reached three figures in the penultimate over of Guyana’s innings after facing 148 deliveries while hitting eight fours and a solitary six. He ended unbeaten as Guyana lost Renaldo Ali-Mohamed off the final ball of their innings. The total was Guyana’s highest of the tournament surpassing their 276-5 made the previous day against the Windwards. Joshua Drakes led the Bajans’ attack with 2-22 from three overs.
Solid half centuries from Lee-German Drakes (75) and Gaskin (69) formed the visitors’ reply but they failed to reach the target. At the end, Barbados were routed for 44 runs less than the Guyana total. Sharaz Ramcharan finished with 4-59 from nine overs while Steven Sankar supported with 3-51 from his allotment of 10 overs.
At the Demerara Cricket Club ground in Queenstown Trinidad and Tobago defeated the Leeward Islands by five wickets. The Leewards, batting first scored 250-8 with Trinidad making 256-5 in reply.
The Windwards qualified for tomorrow’s final after defeating defending champions Jamaica to finished with 21.9 points; .1 of a point more than the Jamaicans. Guyana finished with 36.4 points after winning all of their matches.
The match is set for the Everest Cricket Club ground and will commenced at 9:30 a.m.
