Centuries from Leon Johnson and Chandrapaul Hemraj capped off the final Guyana Jaguars warm-up match on a positive note at the National Stadium, Providence yesterday.
Johnson who will be leading the Jaguars in pursuit of their sixth consecutive Professional Cricket League title resumed the day on 23 and went on to score 104 before retiring to give the other batsmen a chance to bat. The skipper brought up his half century with a four through long on to go to lunch on 53 and retired an hour before tea.
The 32-year-old left-hander spent five hours at the crease and faced 265 balls while hitting nine fours and one six. Johnson forged a second wicket partnership of 167 with fellow left-hander, Hemraj who also made 104.
Hemraj’s 200-minute innings featured eight fours and six sixes, one of which was hoisted into mid-wicket to bring up his century but was dismissed shortly after by edging to the wicketkeeper.
Johnson went on to add 89 for the fourth wicket with Tagenarine Chanderpaul who notched up 51 from 147 balls during his three-hour stay at the crease. He hit four boundaries.
However, when Chanderpaul retired, Christopher Barnwell and Vishaul Singh scored 27 and 18 respectively.
In the match, Johnson’s XI resumed their first innings on 85 for one in reply to Anthony Adams’ XI first innings total of 244.
Johnson’s side went on to post 388 for 7 from 117 overs before stumps were called. At the crease, Raymon Reifer finished on 27 not out from 49 balls while spending an hour at the crease.
Reifer added 56 for the eighth wicket with Anthony Bramble who made 24 from 43 balls before being trapped leg before wicket to Anthony Adams.
Ronaldo Ali-Mohamed ended with 2 for 36. Anthony Adams, Ricardo Adams and Trevon Griffith picked up one wicket each. Hemraj and Chanderpaul both expressed satisfaction with the practice match, noting that it serves well to have spent time in the middle ahead of their Professional Cricket League opening match against Leeward Island Volcanoes from January 9-12. The Jaguars will depart for Antigua on Monday.
