Based on the recent performances by the Guyana Jaguars in this season’s West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB) Professional Cricket League 4-day tourney, it’s safe to say the home team is clearly a different side than they were last year and can surely go on to win the Regional title.
On paper the Jaguars boast skill, experience, talent and class, tool sets which made teams like Australia, India, New Zealand and Pakistan forces to be reckoned with in the 90’s and 2000’s, but for a team who struggled to get out of the blocks last season Guyana has so far looked a completely different side in both their approach and line up.
So far, the Jaguars have successfully hunted and captured the likes of the Leeward Hurricanes, the Windward Volcanoes and the Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel in rounds 1, 2 and 4 of the competition. The chronological order was disrupted when the local team horribly failed to achieve 69 runs from a full day’s play in round 3 against the Barbados Pride.
Round one, Narsingh Deonarine rolled back the years of batting glory when he scored an unbeaten 110, while a clinical bowling performance starring spin twins Devendra Bishoo and Veerasammy Permaul helped the Jaguars to a convincing innings and 10-run win over the Hurricanes, a match dominated by the Jaguars.
10Deonarine along with the spin twins again starred in round two’s sequel of the thumping they gave the Windwards after the left-hander returned with a majestic first innings 139 while the veteran Shiv Chanderpaul chipped in with 62. Bishoo, Permaul and Deonarine then spun webs around the Windwards as they combined to take 18 of the 20 wickets to fall in the match, racing to a 92-run win. With two games won on the trot playing at home, the Jaguars then suffered their biggest failure of the competition thus far when they let arch nemesis Barbados, a team which they had not beaten on home soil in 30 years, successfully defend 69 runs. Guyana’s wicket-keeper Anthony Bramble had first set the tone with a top score of 73 as the team reached a first innings total 261 all out.
Permaul then flexed his muscles as he captured 8-26 in his first innings as Barbados were routed for 101. However, a 97-run partnership between Ryan Hinds (68) and Shane Dowrich (50) in the second innings revived Barbados Pride as they ended with 228, leaving the Jaguars 69 runs to win from the last day.
This attempt to chase a mere 69 runs with nearly a full day’s play left seemed easy for most teams, especially the leaders of the points table who had trounced all the teams they opposed thus far. But this was not to be as the Jaguars who were the tournament hunters stumbled in their pursuit as Dwayne Smith’s 5-17, Hinds’ 2-21, Johnathan Carter’s 2-13 and skipper Carlos Brathwaite’s 1-2 ensured the 30-year record lived to see another season as the undefeated Guyana were handed their first loss by a mere 2 runs.
Heading into the fourth round, skipper Vishaul Singh who took over from captaincy from Leon Johnson who went to South Africa along with Assad Fudadin and Chanderpaul for the upcoming Test series, said missing three Test players was a blow to any team but admitted the next round played in Trinidad would have been critical for the Guyanese.
The final round before the tournament break for the Christmas season saw the out-of-sorts Red Force battling the Jaguars at the famous Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad. Knowing his side was under pressure from round three’s loss to Barbados, Singh himself was in need of a score after failing in both innings against Barbados.
The miniature left-hander then brought out his latent “Big Dog” skills and notched up a career best 141, his maiden first-class century. Opener Rajendra Chandrika (60) scored his first half-century of the tournament after making quite a few starts in the competition while all-rounders Chris Barnwell (65) and Barbados’ Raymon Reifer (58) along with a bold, even 50 from Permaul guided the Jaguars to a mammoth 492-8 declared in the second innings, the highest score of the competition.
Capitalising on the Red Force’s inability to bat long, Guyana bowled the home team out for 198 in the first innings before piling on the runs, courtesy of Bishoo 4-49 and Deonarine 3-25. The bowling won another match for the Jaguars when Bishoo’s 3-82, Permaul’s 4-51, Ronsford Beaton’s 2-24 would restrict the Trinidadians to 234 as they wrapped up the first leg of the 4-day tourney with another thumping win, beating the Red Force at home by an innings and 60-runs.
These performances by the home team paint a picture of confidence and form along with the talent to topple all other teams in the Caribbean, whether home or away. The Jaguars will return home now to spend Christmas with friends and family as they sit as a star atop the tree, a fitting image for a team who has so far accumulated 55 points as they seek to resume their hunt for the title when the tournament recommences in February 2015.
