BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – IN a display of class, resilience and patience, Guyana Jaguars’ middle order batsman Shivnarie Chanderpaul paved the way for his team to deny the Leeward Islands Hurricanes an outright victory in their third round clash of the Cricket West Indies Professional Cricket League.
The former West Indies Test player stroked a patient 109 to ensure the Jaguars left Warner Park yesterday (Nov. 12) with a draw and share the points, after they had a first innings batting collapse and could not avoid a follow-on.
Winning the toss on Thursday, last, the home side was inserted to bat and slowly closed the day on 181 runs for the loss of one wicket.
But on day two they accelerated and pushed their innings and declared on 412 for 9.
The Hurricanes bowlers had quickly made inroads just before stumps and restricted Guyana’s free flowing batsmen – leaving them reeling on 53 for 6.
Resuming on day three, they rolled over the wounded Jaguars for a paltry 206 with Terance Ward, the pick of the bowlers, bagging four for 48 from 10 overs.
Hurricanes captain, Rakheem Cornwall enforced the follow-on with the view of a repeat performance to achieve an outright win, as the Jaguars had a deficit of 206 runs.
But the veteran, Chanderpaul, who was drafted in for the third-round encounter, rolled back the years to aggressively punish the Hurricanes bowlers.
He blasted 109 from 147 balls in an inning that consisted of 10x4s and 4x6s, as the Jaguars frustrated the Hurricanes by batting throughout the final day to end on 305 for 7, earning them a draw.
Rookie all-rounder Terrence Warde was named Man-of-the-Match for his outstandinf off-spiners, taking 8 scalps in the match - 4 for 47 in the first innings and 4 for 48 in the second.
Commentators from that encounter intimated that the Leeward Islands inconsistent bowling and their slow batting on the first day had cost them the loss of outright victory – which could have seen them cut into Guyana’s lead at the top of the points table.
Meanwhile, Hurricanes coach Winston Benjamin told reporters that the he believes his team performed credibly against a good Guyana team, which came into the encounter at the top of the table.
He however noted that after they had gotten quick wickets on Saturday, his unit let the game slip away after they had pegged the Jaguars at 53 for 6 and allowed the Jaguars to get 206 all out.
“The wicket in itself was not the best for batting. It was slow and it was just hard work for the seamers…I thought Terance Ward bowled well…”
The Leeward Islands Hurricanes will now go back to the drawing board to prepare for their encounter against the Jamaica Scorpions, which is slated to begin on Thursday (Nov. 16) at the same venue.
