West Indies Championship-CCC make inroads against GHE on Day 2

It was another tough day on Thursday for the Guyana Harpy Eagles (GHE) bowlers, who again struggled to take wickets as they headed into Day 2 of their second-round West Indies Championship clash with Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC).

To add insult to injury, CCC were equally ferocious with the ball in hand as the hosts Harpy Eagles made an absolute mess of the chase, being six down for just 166 runs. However, a bright spark in the day was Captain Tevin Imlach’s individual resistance with a half-century.

CCC resumed Day 2 on 279-6 with Corbin and Akeem Jordan at the crease. Jordan fell for 16 from 28 to Shamar Joseph’s pace while Corbin did most of the work upgrading his overnight score of 62 to a sparkling century. The right-handed batsman hit 11 fours and one six to get to his second First-Class century – 102.
As Corbin got to the milestone in 204 balls, dispatching Joseph to the boundary, the batsman injured his shoulder and was forced to retire hurt. Avinash Mahabirsingh gave the host bowlers more to scratch their heads about, hitting a brisk 33 off 52 balls. While Mahabirsingh remained unbeaten, Veerasammy Permaul had Ojay Shields caught in the slips to end the CCC innings on 375 from 114.5 overs.

While Ronaldo Alimohamed picked up 3-56 from 24 overs, Joseph snared 3-115 from 26 overs. Permaul also grabbed 3 wickets for 87 runs from 37.5 overs.
Now hunting down 375 before they could add a lead of their own, the Harpy Eagles lost wickets on a consistent basis as their captain, Tevin Imlach fought to hold up one end of the crease.
Tagenarine Chanderpaul was the first to go for just four runs while Matthew Nandu departed for 11. Raymond Perez and Kevlon Anderson both looked comfortable at the crease until a controversial lbw decision forced Anderson to walk back to the dugout for a run-a-ball 19.
Perez followed soon after, edging Mahabirsingh’s bowling to forward short leg for a simple catch. Similarly, the likes of Kemol Savory and Kevin Sinclair were unable to settle in at the crease, departing for 12 and 19 runs respectively; diving the hosts, the tournament’s defending champions, further into trouble.
At 116-6, Imlach who had been a spectator to the wickets at the other end, alongside Richie Looknauth, dug deep to eke out a 50-run partnership that took the Harpy Eagles safely to close of play. Under immense pressure, Imlach brought up his half-century in 76 balls and went on to end the day unbeaten on 58 from 95 balls.
On the other end, Looknauth ended the day unbeaten on 21 off 45 balls.
Shields was the most outstanding of the CCC bowlers, snaring 3-42 from 10 overs. Jordan picked up 2-33 from 12.1 overs while Mahabirsingh ended with 1-39 from 11 overs.
The Regional Four-Day action will continue at 10:00h today for Day 3.