Veerasammy Permaul’s eight-wicket haul gave the Leon Johnson XI a glimmer of hope yesterday. They trail the Vishaul Singh-led XI by 243 runs heading into day three of the Cricket Guyana Inc.’s (CGI) final four-day practice match which continued yesterday at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.
The former West Indies Test spinner who captured five wickets on the first day went on to snare another three wickets on day two, wrapping up his first innings campaign with figures of 8-96 from 32 overs as Singh’s XI were bowled out for a commanding first innings total of 349 after contributions on the first day from Shimron Hetmyer (100), Royston Crandon (97) and Kandasammy Surujnarine (44). All-rounders Chis Barnwell (1-39) and Narsingh Deonarine (1-62) were the other two bowlers to pick up wickets.
At the close of play Johnson’s side were nervously placed on 106-4 with Deonarine (23*) and Barnwell (4*) both unbeaten after Raj Nannan (2-32) and Steven Jacobs (2-27) strangled the batting order with their variation, spin and aggressive approach which managed to swing things in further favor of their team.
Openers Trevon Griffith and Rajendra Chandrika (29) batted cautiously after new ball bowlers in Jeremy Gordon and Raun Johnson exhibited venom and accuracy as they gave nothing away to the two batsmen, despite ending wicketless.
The two went on to add a watchful 54 for the first wicket before the orthodox left-arm spinner Nannan provided the breakthrough with his second delivery which yielded the wicket of Chandrika who was caught at short-cover by Singh. Jacobs, who got a good amount of spin out of the pitch was rewarded when he bowled a delivery which straightened significantly, pitching middle and off-stump of Griffith who was then given out LBW at the stroke of tea with the score 56-2.
The final session of day two’s chase rested on the experienced shoulders of skipper Johnson and Deonarine who were both relatively new to the crease. The two Test players dug in and put on 36 during their stay before Nannan had his Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) teammate caught by forward short-leg fielder Hetmyer for 19 which was inclusive of two fours and a six.
With the score 92-3, the master Shivnarine Chanderpaul walked to the middle in a situation that has become normal to him as he faced with defying the opposition bowler. However, Jacobs had other plans for the 40 year-old batting maestro who was then caught by Hetmyer at silly mid-off by Hetmyer for two runs.
Barnwell and his more senior partner were then tasked with chasing down the remaining runs before a combination of rain and bad light stopped play for the day.
Earlier, after morning showers washed out the morning session, the match resumed at 12:00hrs with the overnight pair of Chandrapaul Hemraj (43) and Ricardo Adams (16) looking to add to an already big total, but Deonarine who had been on top of his game with the ball on the first day had other plans when he accounted for the wicket of Hemraj who managed to add three runs to his overnight total before he hit one down the throat of Trevon Griffith at short long-on leaving the total 314-7.
Permaul began his onslaught by first removing all-rounder Kemo Paul (12) who provided a faint catch to the wicket-keeper Anthony Bramble after being outfoxed by a delivery which provided both spin and bounce, while opposition wicket-keeper/batsman Jason Sinclair who has a half-century under his belt from the first match, was sent packing for 4 runs after the left-arm spinner had him adjudged leg-before.
Adams toiled and battled for his small score but a red-hot Permaul was too good for the left-hander who found himself comprehensively bowled leaving last man Amir Khan beached on zero as the Singh XI were bowled out within 43 minutes of the day’s play.
Day three’s action which continues today looks to be another highly-competitive day of cricket between these two sides who are gearing up for next week’s start of the 2014/15 Professional Cricket League 4-day season.
