From Clifton Ross in Barbados
Guyana Jaguars Captain Leon Johnson has credited what he termed a “spirited fight” by his team who did well to earn a draw against the Barbados Pride and remain on top of the 2015-16 Professional Cricket League (PCL) Regional Four Day tournament points table.
After four days of high level senior cricket at the legendary Kensington Oval ground in Barbados, defending champion Guyana managed to recover from a perilous state in their second innings to defy the Bajan bowlers on the final day and keep their unbeaten streak alive.
Set a record 405 runs to win in their second innings, the highest last day total ever at Kensington after unbeaten tons from Test player Shai Hope and West Indies ODI batsman Jonathan Carter, the Jaguars ended on 252-7 at stumps. In November, 2014, Guyana easily chased down 335 runs in their second innings to beat Barbados at the Kensington Oval but this time the Jaguars could count themselves luck to emerge unscathed.
Tagenarine Chanderpaul top scored with 69, skipper Leon Johnson scored 50 and Rajendra Chandrika made 49 as the Jaguars ensured their unbeaten streak this season remained intact.
The true heroes however, were Raymon Reifer, the Barbados-born all-rounder who scored 16 off 100 odd delivers while Devendra Bishoo, the West Indies Test leg-spinner, batted 262 balls for his six runs to ensure the Jaguars resisted until stumps.
Batsman Roston Chase who is number four on the run-getters list with a tally of 496, proved his point as an effective off-spinner as he ended with the 10 for 104 and walked away with the MVP award.
When asked on how he had rated the performance of the match, Johnson, who spoke with Stabroek Sport after the match said:” I think we had a pretty average game, we were a bit inconsistent with the ball in the first innings. We kept Barbados to 274 but I think had we bowled better after tea we could have reduced them to 230.”
He continued, “After being bowled out for 190 in our first innings, we would have needed something special to win the game so we are satisfied with the draw.”
Despite none of the senior guys in the side pressing on to make a big score or staying through to the end, the West Indies Test batsman seemed relatively happy with his team’s performance in the end. “Chasing 405 was always going to be difficult, but we showed great character to bat 120 overs to earn a draw.”
Guyana now have a total of 107 points after the draw against the Pride, who remained in second place with 90 points and the former West Indies Under 19 skipper admitted that the champs might have fallen back slightly but ensured that they will regroup quickly ahead of the final three rounds.
“Our last three games we have fallen short in our first innings. We have managed two wins and a draw but we didn’t post substantial first innings scores. We have addressed it and will rectify it in the remaining games,” Johnson said.
Guyana will now turn their attention to the Windward Volcanoes in round eight of the competition which begins Friday in St Lucia.
