Shivnarine Chanderpaul notched up a crucial half-century on Friday while their bowlers snapped up six wickets as defending champs Guyana Jaguars ended day two of their sixth round match against the Windward Islands Volcanoes at Providence in a commanding position.
After bowling out the Windwards for a first innings 117 early on day one, Guyana resumed day two on 78 for 2 and were eventually bowled out for 194 from 71.4 overs in their first innings, taking a crucial 77-run lead on a grafting wicket. Elder statesman, Shivnarine Chanderpaul again kept his team in the game with a solid knock of 59 with seven fours and two sixes.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul walks into the shot off Shane Shillingford to go to 50
His son, opener Tagenarine Chanderpaul was the next best scorer with 36 as ex-West Indies off-spinner Shane Shillingford bagged 4-36 while seamer Sherman Lewis supported with descent figures of 3-62 bowling for visitors.
Batting a second time, the Volcanoes were 126-7 from 43.3 overs with opener Devon Smith looking solid on 49 not out. All-rounder Sherfane Rutherford lead the way with two wickets while Veerasammy Permaul, Gudakesh Motie, Keon Joseph and Keemo Paul all have one each.
The Windwards started their second innings cautiously with their most established batsmen Devon Smith and skipper Tyrone Theophile taking the score to 24-0 at the tea interval. The pair would add just three more runs to their opening stand before fast-bowler Keon Joseph broke the bat edge of the Windwards captain who was caught behind by Anthony Bramble.
It didn’t take long for Rutherford to get into the action as he produced a ripper to uproot the stumps of Taryck Gabriel while Miles Bascombe hit two boundaries to realize his team’s 50 but never suggested permanence and was sent back by the energetic Keemo Paul.
Meanwhile Smith, the tournament’s leading run-scorer remained quite unorthodox as he sought to temper his aggression with wickets falling around him. The left-hander found the ropes on four occasions by stumps also saw the demise of Roland Cato who was very uncomfortable to Motie.
Downell Hector played a mini cameo, smacking three fours and big six in his innings of 20 but was given out after being struck plumb on the pads by Permaul, followed by Kyle Mayers (11) who was bowled by Paul after choosing to leave a swinging delivery which crashed into his stumps.
Smith was then left unbeaten, one shy of fifty when stumps were drawn with the artificial lights on.
Earlier when action began, Tagenarien Chanderpaul and Vishaul Singh resumed their innings with the Jaguars on 78 for 2 still trailing by 39 runs.
After a testing first over from left-arm seamer, Delorn Johnson Singh played over an in swinger in the day’s fourth over.
Johnson who was now bowling with his tail up got new batsman Shiv Chanderpaul to edge down the leg side but wicketkeeper Dennis Smith floored the diving chance with the legendary Shiv on one.
After a brief father and son partnership of 10 runs, disaster struck again. The younger Chanderpaul played an exquisite cover-drive off Sherman Lewis but followed a wide delivery down the leg side and was acrobatically be taken by keeper Smith who made amends.
The visitors then continued to make the most of the seaming conditions and the early wickets when Kyle Mayers got in the act by removing Anthony Bramble with a ball that swung back in after the Berbician hit a solitary boundary.
Jaguars continued to gift their wickets away when Keemo Paul offered a simple return catch to Shillingford who was beginning to settle in a nice rhythm bowling from the Payers Pavilion End.
However, Shiv and rookie all-rounder Rutherford then combined to address the collapse with a 56-run seventh wicket partnership that saw the Jaguars going to lunch at 144-6 with a slim lead of 27 runs.
Upon resumption of the afternoon session, the veteran left-hander continued to roll back the years with classical stroke-play which starred amidst a relatively dismal batting exhibition by the champs.
After Shillingford outfoxed Rutherford, Shiv then found a useful partner in Permaul to put on 26 before Shillingford had a double strike.
The Dominican first bowled the right-hander Permaul and next delivery had the left-handed Motie caught at slip. Shiv then tried to extend the innings by hogging the strike from number 11, Joseph and in the process brought up his 140th First Class 50 before he holed out to gully off Mayers who was desperately trying things with the ball.
When the action resumes today at 09:30h, the Volcanoes will look to add to their 50-run lead while the Jaguars will be looking to mop up the lower order as early as possible to push for an early victory.
