Narsingh Deonarine stroked his 43rd first-class half-century to leave table leaders Guyana Jaguars comfortably placed on 168-3 against the Windwards Volcanoes after bad light stopped play in the first day of the West Indies Cricket Board’s Professional Cricket League (PCL) second round Regional four-day match played at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence yesterday.
The 31-year-old former West Indies ODI and Test batsman continued to make a strong case for a possible international recall after following up his majestic 110 not out against the Leewards in the first match with a composed, fluent 157-ball unbeaten 79 which featured nine fours.
Opener Assad Fudadin, who was recently recalled to the West Indies Test side for the upcoming South African tour as replacement for Darren Bravo, chipped in with a watchful 34 as the Jaguars head into the second day with current 58-run partnership between Deonarine who looks set for another three figure score and the dependable Shiv Chanderpaul (26*).
Bowling for the Windwards, skipper Liam Sebastian utilized the services of six bowlers including himself but only managed to reap success from pacers Nelon Pascal (8-2-24-1) and Mervin Mathew (9-2-14-1) who set the tone early in the innings while seamer Kenroy Peters (9-4-18-1) chipped in with his useful medium pace.
Intermittent showers which fell throughout the city for the past two days washed out the morning session but after some persistent sunshine, umpires decided that play begin at 12:30hrs, following the lunch interval.
The Jaguars won the toss and elected to take first strike and were immediately put on the back foot when opener Rajendra Chandrika (5) was bowled after attempting to leave alone a lively in-swinger from Pascal who operated with the new ball from the Media Center End.
Guyana skipper Leon Johnson (19) who made his Test debut as an opener a few months ago against Bangladesh, found himself in a relatively similar position after the early wicket and sought to rebuild the innings with Fudadin.
After taking the team score to 39, Johnson, who is known to be a good player of the hook or pull shot was undone by a top edge off the bowling of Peters and was caught at cover by Keddy Lesporis.
Fudadin, who had progressed to 15, remained unflustered by the two big blows and continued to play within himself while century maker of the last match Deonarine replaced his skipper at the crease and struck a timely four to raise the Jaguars’ 50 runs after 20 overs.
The pair of experienced left-handers took the score to 99 at the tea break and immediately raised the team’s 100 upon the resumption of play as Deonarine crept closer to another well played half-century.
Fudadin, who oozed patience since his walk to the middle, then lost his concentration and was trapped leg before wicket by Mathew, but Deonarine motored on and soon reached his second consecutive half-century off 94 deliveries with seven fours which he will seek to convert into three figures as he did in the first match.
Chanderpaul was the new batsman to take guard after the dismissal of Fudadin and the pair of stylish left-handers immediately forged a partnership which looks ominous.
As stumps for the first the approached along with signs of more showers, the two set batsmen saw off the Windwards spinners and took their team closer to achieving some much needed batting points heading into today’s session.
The match continues today at 9:00hrs and admission is free.
Scoreboard
JAGUARS 1st Innings
R. Chandrika b Pascal 5
A. Fudadin lbw b Matthews 34
*L. Johnson c (sub) Lesporis b Peters 19
N. Deonarine not out 79
S. Chanderpaul not out 26
Extras (b2, nb3) 5
TOTAL (3 wkts, 64 overs) 168
To bat: R. Reifer, C. Barnwell, +A. Bramble, V. Permaul, D. Bishoo, R. Beaton.
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-39, 3-110.
Bowling: Matthews 9-2-14-1, Pascal 8-2-24-1 (nb1), Peters 9-4-18-1, Bobb 18-1-48-0, Sebastien 16-4-51-0 (nb2, Fletcher 1-0-6-0, Theophile 3-1-5-0.
VOLCANOES: D.S. Smith, T. Theophile, A. Fletcher, S. Ambris, R. Currency, *L. Sebastien, +L. James, A. Bobb, M. Matthew, K. Peters, N. Pascal
Toss: Jaguars
Umpires: N. Shivsankar, P. Nero.
