An unwelcome guest showed up at the Providence Cricket Stadium for the second night in succession and robbed what was turning out to be a belter of a match between defending West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) four-day champions Guyana and Barbados Pride, currently in second place, into a damp squib.
The top-of-the-table clash between the Guyana Jaguars on 33-6 points and the Barbados Pride on 33.4 points had seemed set for a nail biting finish after spinners Jomel Warrican and Roston Chase with four wickets each in 20 overs of off and left-arm orthodox spin, sparked a sensational collapse to send the Guyana Jaguars crashing to 137 all out in their second innings.
Warrican bagged 4-12 and Chase 4-41 as the Guyana Jaguars slumped from a comfortable position of
79-3 to their eventual score despite a battling innings of 67 from former West Indies U19 skipper Shimron Hetmeyer.
Hetmeyer, who made 60 in the first innings again played aggressively, hitting both Kemar Roach and Justin Graves for boundaries on the way to his 62-ball half century.
When play began yesterday there was little inkling of the drama that was in store especially after Gudakesh Motie and Hetmeyer took the Guyana Jaguars from 32-2 to 79 when the third wicket, that of Motie, fell.
He was caught behind off the bowling of the seamer Greaves for 10.
Vishaul Singh and Hetmeyer added 31 runs for the fourth wicket with Singh benefiting from a dropped return catch by Warrican but he failed to capilatise on the chance and shortly after was caught by Jonathan Carter for 12.
His dismissal seemed to open the floodgates and wickets began to fall at regular intervals.
In fact, Carter (who pulled in five catches) and Chase combined for a sequence of three wickets with Singh, Shiv Chanderpaul and Chris Barnwell, all being dismissed caught at first slip by Carter, bowled by Chase. With Chase running through the middle order and Warrican chipping in with wickets at regular intervals the Guyana Jaguars, at one stage 115-7 subsided for 137. Fast bowler Kemar Roach and Greaves were the other wicket takers as only four Guyana Jaguars batsmen reached double figures along with extras, whose contribution was 10.
The Jaguars who had led the Barbados Pride by 23 runs on first innings now needed to defend 160 and had the Barbados Pride batsmen in all sorts of trouble at 25-3 when the rain again showed up and ended play for the night.
Needing to score 161 for a come-from behind win, the Barbados Pride were 11-3 with first innings top scorer Shai Hope, (00) the inform Anthony Alleyne (00) and skipper Kraigg Brathwaite, (07) all back in the pavilion as pacers Raymon Reifer (2-13) and Keon Joseph (1-12) made early inroads.
Meanwhile the Guyana Cricket Board gave Guyanese Joseph `reds’ perreira a fitting farewell by donating to him the stumps used in the match while the umpires and the match referee gave him one of the match balls and the Pride players, an autographed training shirt.
This was the final game as a commentator for the 77-year-old Perreira.
