Guyana Jaguars are seemingly finding their ground in the Cricket West Indies (CWI) Regional Super50 as they won their second consecutive match by defeating International Cricket Council (ICC) Americas by 5 runs (D/L method) on Monday at Windward Park, Barbados.
With early morning showers delaying the start of play in this crucial fourth round match by an hour and 50 minutes, the Jaguars were asked to chase 221 from the revised 45 overs and reached 212-4 from 43.3 overs when bad light stopped play with the Jaguars five runs ahead of the Duckworth and Lewis Par score.
Christopher Barnwell was on 29 and Shivnarine Chanderpaul 20 when the Umpires called play.
The important victory was built on solid half-centuries from Captain Leon Johnson and opener Assad Fudadin while pacer Ronsford Beaton was awarded Man-of-the Match for his figures of 4-28.
In pursuit of their target, Rajendra Chandrika was the first wicket to fall with the score on 12 off the bowling of seamer Timroy Allen.
All-rounder Raymon Reifer who scored a match winning 67 batting at three against the Combined Campuses and Colleges Marooners was not able to replicate his heroics as he departed for 6 and the Jaguars were now in a spot of bother at 29-2 in the 11th over.
Johnson and Fudadin then settled the innings, with skipper’s first boundary being a sweep against the off-spin of Nikhil Dutta, as the team progressed to 50-2 in 15 overs.
Johnson continued to grow in confidence hitting back to back boundaries off of Kamar Leverock as the Jaguars moved swiftly to 80-2 in the 19th over.
Skipper Johnson then reached his second fifty of the tournament from 48 balls, hitting seven fours.
The West Indies player then brought up the century partnership with a six down the ground and the side was well under way at 134-2.
Fudadin, who kept the strike rotating at the other end, reached his landmark from 89 balls with four fours but he eventually fell for 54 to Nitish Kumar breaking the 131-run partnership.
Jaguars then slipped to 162-4 in the 35th over when Johnson was removed by Dutta for 78 (9x4s; 1×6).
Newcomers at the crease Chanderpaul and Barnwell batted with great intensity, with Barnwell in particular smashing the ICC Americas bowlers to various parts of the ground in his cameo innings, sealing the crucial victory.
When the Americas were sent in to bat, Kamau Leverock and Fahad Babar began cautiously but the pacey Beaton bowling from the Southern end had Leverock caught by Barnwell for 14 yet they managed to reach 54-1 at the end of 15 overs.
The leg-spin of Devendra Bishoo then accounted for Babar for 24 (3x4s) and from there on it was the Nitish Kumar show.
Kumar’s counter-attacking innings threatened to propel his side to a challenging total as he reached his fifty from 54 balls with three fours and two sixes.
The skipper’s positive innings eventually came to an end when he was dismissed via the left-arm spin of Veerasammy Permaul for 66 (3x4s; 3x6s) and his team now 135-4.
Timroy Allen (37), Srimantha Wijeyeratne (27) and Alex Amsterdam (22) carried the late order rally to post their eventual total.
Jaguars, with two wins from four matches will now play Combined Colleges and Campuses (CCC) Marooners once again on Friday at the Kensington Oval from 13:30h while ICC Americas will tackle Jamaica Scorpions on Wednesday at the Three W’s Oval from 09:00h.
In the other game, Barbados Pride narrowly beat the Jamaica Scorpions by one wicket at the Kensington Oval in their day/ night encounter. Batting first the Scorpions made 190 with Rovman Powell making 74, Jermaine Blackwood 40 and Damion Jacobs 31 while pacers Jason Holder and Kemar Roach picked up three wickets apiece.
In reply, the hosts struggled against the pace of Jerome Taylor (3-39) and Reynard Leveridge (2-38) as they stumbled to 194/9 with the last pair of Sulieman Benn (5 not out) and Ashley Nurse (21 not out) bring it home to give the Pride their third consecutive victory.
The Pride will now meet the CCC Marooners on Wednesday at the Kensington Oval in a day/ night fixture.
The Super50 continues today with two Group A matches, at 9:00h Trinidad and Tobago red Force take on the West Indies Under 19 team at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground while the day/ night match of the day brings together the Windward Islands Volcanoes and Kent Spitfire from 13:30h at the Coolidge Cricket Ground.
