An excellent spell of left-arm seam bowling from Raymon Reifer and another aggressive knock from Chandrapaul Hemraj, placed the Guyana Jaguars in a strong position at the end of day one of their Cricket West Indies (CWI) Regional four-day, final round encounter against the Trinidad and Tobago Red Force at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence yesterday.
Jaguars, after bundling out the visitors for 135 in the 45th over, ended the day on 116 – 1, trailing by 19 runs.
Red Force won the toss and decided to bat, a decision they began to rue after Reifer removed the top order with relative ease to leave them struggling at 15 – 3 inside the first hour.
Skipper Denesh Ramdin, as he has been doing all season, showed a bit of fight along with Yannic Cariah, and took the visitors to 84 – 4 at lunch.
The pair after resuming seemed to be getting into a rhythm by taking the score past the 100-run mark, but like their poor showing this season, they found a way to break the partnership themselves when Cariah was horribly run out for 26 with the score at 109 – 5.
The only glimmer of hope from then on saw Ramdin reaching his 50 after which he was bowled by Keemo Paul for an even half-century which included four fours and two maximums.
Red Force’s lower order, much like the recognised batters, were then quickly skittled out as Reifer picked up his fourth five-wicket haul at this level.
The West Indies all-rounder ended with 5- 40 from 11 overs while Paul, who continues to enjoy Providence, grabbed 3 – 36. Left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul – the league’s leading wicket-taker – claimed the other wicket to fall.
Jaguars in their first innings, came out looking positive. Hemraj was the man expressing himself as he searched for that elusive maiden first-class century, which once again eluded him.
The left-hander, however, slammed 11 fours and two sixes on his way to 72 from 111 deliveries before being removed by off-spinner, Brian Charles.
Hemraj during his eye-catching stay at the crease added 109 with Tagenarine Chanderpaul, who ended the day unbeaten on 34 from 129 balls and with him is West Indies batsman, Shimron Hetmyer on four.
Play resumes today at 9:30.
