By Royston Alkins
The Guyana Jaguars will be hoping to put behind them the burden of a second straight defeat and focus on forging a come-from-behind bid to qualify for the semifinals of this year’s Regional Super50 one day tournament.
The Jaguars went down to the Jamaica Scorpions in their second match by 41 runs despite a crafty century (101) from old-timer Shivnarine Chanderpaul after losing their opening game to the Barbados Pride on Tuesday.
Chanderpaul, who did not play in Tuesday’s match which the Jaguars lost by 145 runs, because of a neck injury, was passed fit and included for the Jamaica game.
There was welcome sigh of relief when `Mr. Dependable’ strolled to the crease with the Jaguars already in a spot of bother.
He looked unperturbed as he churned out the runs which kept both teams on the edge and nearly inspiring a Jaguars win but got little support from the other batters and the team’s miserable batting performance again left much to be desired. Apart from Chanderpaul, only three other batters reached double figures with Anthony Bramble’s 29 being the highest. Scorpions’ talisman Jerome Taylor was the key bowler, restricting the Jaguars with 5-48 to leave the Jaguars short of the 249-8 made by the Scorpions who batted first after winning the toss.
The Scorpions were led by Chadwick Walton who stroked an eye-catching 82 from 84 balls filled with six fours and four sixes and Devon Thomas’ 56 not out.
The Jaguars bowling again did not live up to its potential and allowed the Jamaicans to post what became a winning total. Steven Jacobs was once more impressive with economical figures of 2-27 from 10 overs.
The Jaguars are not entirely out of qualifying for the semi-finals owing to the tournament’s structure this year, which sees each team playing against each other twice.
They, however, have a lot work to do and will hope to start their winning ways, today.
Chanderpaul, asked about the disappointment of losing two straight games, during an interview by WICB media after the scorpions defeat, said: “We still have a lot of games in the tournament to play. So, we have to try and put this behind us as quickly as possible. We have six (6) more games to play and we have to try and play as well as we can. If we win then we can still come out on top of this league.”
The management, however, should be more concerned that the team hasn’t registered a win which is badly needed to lift the belief in the team to squash the 12 year drought without a one-day title.
They will need to turn things around pretty soon and will have a chance to do so against an upbeat but inexperienced Combined Campuses & Colleges (Marooners) team.
The students started the tournament strongly with consecutive wins over the Scorpions and ICC Americas on the back of two robust batting performances from 19-year-old Amir Jangoo who has so far struck two half centuries in both the Marooners win.
Jaguars will have to put in a good all round performance today at the 3Ws Oval to upstage the confident Marooners side that has a number of Barbadian players who have intimate knowledge of the conditions since it is their home ground when they play in the local Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) tournaments.
Guyana skipper Leon Johnson might be considering a few changes to come up with a winning combination for today’s match and the rest of the tournament. In that respect, the versatile Paul Wintz who took 10 wickets in last year’s tournament may replace speedster Ronsford Beaton. Wintz’s inclusion will give Johnson the much needed control with the new ball and added lower order batting support as Wintz in no slouch with the bat.
The management should also contemplate using wicket-keeper batsman Anthony Bramble at the top of the order at the expense of either Shimron Hetmeyer or Assad Fudadin, who opened the innings in the first two matches.
Bramble, who opened the batting before, missed out on a century in the first practice match of Guyana’s preparation for the title hunt. His positive intent could ensure that Guyana receives a positive start.
To date, the Jaguars and Marooners have met on seven occasions with Guyana winning six of the matches and losing the other.
The two teams last met in the 2016 edition of the tournament with Guyana completing a convincing six-wicket win. Fudadin on that occasion, made an impressive 71, chasing down a meager 150 set by the Marooners. That match saw Anthony Bramble opening the batting with Fudadin to set up a 76-run opening stand while Wintz had impressive figures of 3-21 from 8.3 overs.