Defending champions, Guyana Jaguars held a slim lead of 28 runs over Trinidad and Tobago Red Force after 22 wickets tumbled on the first day of the pink-ball 10th round match in the Cricket West Indies Regional Four-Day Championships last night at the Providence Stadium.
In the presence of the largest crowd at the venue for the season, Red Force won the toss and were bowled out for 120 in 32.1 overs while closing their second innings on 17-2 in reply to Jaguars’ 165 in their first innings, coming from 41.1 overs.
Romario Shepherd ripped through the Red Force batting order to finish with a career best of 5-24, removing key batsmen in the form of skipper, Denesh Ramdin (01) and Jason Mohammed (00) in the ninth over.
Shepherd would finish off the innings with the wicket of Anderson Phillip who sliced to Anthony Bramble who completed his 200th first class catch, 30 minutes after the dinner break.
Jaguars were sloppy in the field early on, allowing three chances to go down.
Imran Khan top scored with a 43-ball 37, decorated with 7 boundaries during his hour-long stay at the crease. Tion Webster also contributed a valuable 30 at the top of the order but feathered an edge to Bramble off of Sherfane Rutherford, who also accounted for the wicket of Khary Pierre to finish with 2-31.
The table toppers began in their chase in horrific style with opener, Tagenarine Chanderpaul (08) popping a simple return catch to left-arm seamer, Daniel St. Clair, and Chandrapaul Hemraj (04) guiding a delivery wide of off-stump to Ramdin in the space of two deliveries.
Jaguars plunged further into peril, losing skipper Leon Johnson, who was bowled by St. Clair for a second six-ball duck and stood at 22-3.
However, a responsible half century from Bramble revived the hosts’ innings. Bramble brought up his 10th half century with an uppercut off Odean Smith that bolted to the third man boundary, eventually finishing on 62 from 76 balls, laced with 7 boundaries.
Bramble was supported by Christopher Barnwell (20) and Shepherd (18) as Smith picked up the wickets of Vishaul Singh (17) and Raymon Reifer (00) within three balls to finish with 3-37.
Red Force, batting for a second time in the night lost Jeremy Solozano to the first delivery of the innings from Shepherd while Webster was trapped leg before wicket to Rutherford for 7 to close the day’s play.
Jaguars are currently at the top of the table with 136 points while Leeward Islands Hurricanes are in second place on 110.6 points with two matches to go.
The match resumes at 14:00hrs today.
