Narsingh Deonarine’s 10th first-class ton along with wizardry from spin twins Veerasammy Permaul and Devendra Bishoo and a three wicket haul from pacer Ronsford Beaton left the Guyana Jaguars in control of their West Indies Cricket Board’s Professional Cricket League at the end of the second day’s play yesterday.
Permaul, Bishoo and Beaton each picked up three wickets to bowl Guyana to first innings points after the Leewards were dismissed for a first innings total of 94 before following on.
The discarded West Indies left-hander Deonarine, stroked his unbeaten 110 in an innings decorated with nine fours while occupying the crease for some 257 minutes as he exhibited a good level of concentration, fitness and aggression as he laid the foundation for his team’s massive total.
Right-arm fast-bowler Ronsford Beaton tormented the top three batsmen to end with figures of (3-26), while Bishoo (3-30) and Permaul (3-18) operated in tandem and scythed through the remainder of the batting line-up as the Leewards were routed for their paltry score in 47 overs.
Spinner Anthony Martin top-scored with 25. Heading into day three, Leewards were 4-0 still trailing by 245 runs after following on with both openers scoreless.
The Jaguars batting was earlier spurred by wicket-keeper Anthony Bramble who fell short of what would have been a brisk half-century or a possible century when he gave away his wicket for 46. Day one batsmen, Shiv Chanderpaul (45), Rajendra Chandrika (31), Captain Leon Johnson (30) and Chris Barnwell 33 all made starts and contributed in a valiant batting effort, taking their team to 343.
Ex-West Indies pacer Gavin Tonge ended with 4-60 while Jacques Taylor picked up 2-71 and a wicket apiece from Yannick Leonard, Peters and Anthony Martin capped off the Leewards bowling effort.
Beaton tore through the Leewards top order when he first had opener Austin Richards Jr removed for a duck after being beaten for pace. The West Indies ‘A’ speedster then cranked up the steam a bit more and uprooted the stumps of Akeem Saunders (0) before having Lyndell Richardson caught by Permaul.
Those devastating blows left the visitors at 86-3 heading into tea but things got worse for Leewards after the break when the former West Indies spin duo of Bishoo and Permaul unleashed their wizardry. Orlando Peters (18) was bowled by Bishoo who then knocked over the skipper Devon Thomas for 13 while Permaul removed Vice-captain Jamar Hamilton for a duck after Bramble completed a good catch.
With the score 46-6 Taylor and Tonge were tasked with an uphill challenge after losing more than half of their team. Permaul, who was bowling from the Media Center End, used his loop and spin to trap Tonge LBW while Bishoo bamboozled Taylor with a full delivery which he drove back into the hands of the bowler as the visitors were reduced to 56 for 8.
Leonard and Martin fended off Beaton’s pace as well as the spinners’ magic before Permaul had the latter caught by Bramble and Kelbert Walters (1) was run out from a direct throw from Shivnarine Chanderpaul as the Jaguars enforced the follow-on with one over left.
Earlier, after resuming their innings on 73 and 24 runs respectively, Deonarine and Barnwell looked to push forward and add to their totals. Barnwell managed to add nine more runs to his total before Martin trapped him LBW.
Bramble joined his fellow Berbician who had taken his score into the 90’s and the two helped take the total over 300. The left-hander Deonarine, who batted for nearly the entire day on Friday then reached his milestone to which he celebrated with much elation.
Meanwhile, at the other end Bramble switched into his aggressive mode, smoking five fours and a six before he carelessly threw away the opportunity of registering a half-century when he was caught at long-on by Jacques Taylor off the bowling of Leonard.
Veerasammy Permaul (4) was cleaned up at the stroke of lunch compliments of Taylor who sent him packing by virtue of an LBW decision which left the Jaguars on 320-8 heading into the interval.
After the lunch break, Bishoo (14), attempted a possible anchor role before he was removed leg-before by Tonge who also picked up the last wicket in Beaton who was also dismissed in similar fashion, leaving Deonarine stranded on his unbeaten century.
The action continues at 10:00hrs today.
