Guyana Jaguars opening batsmen, Chandrapaul Hemraj and Tagenarine Chanderpaul are fresh off career best First Class knocks in the ongoing Digicel Regional Four-Day tournament which may be described as the coming of age.
Playing at the Region’s ‘Mecca,’ the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown Barbados in round nine, the pair of left-handers listened to Coach Esuan Crandon’s call for big scores at the top of the order and answered with Hemraj narrowly missing a century in the first innings scoring 90 while Chanderpaul put the icing on the cake with an unbeaten 101 in the second innings against a high quality Pride attack.
Hemraj who made his First Class debut back in 2012 as a teenager was first used as an opener in the third round of the season against the Leeward Islands Hurricanes after established opener, Rajendra Chandrika suffered a dip in form and was dropped.
Men on a mission! Jaguars openers Chandrapaul Hemraj and Tagenarine Chanderpaul are up to the challenge of laying the foundation for their team
He was placed alongside his Everest Club mate and established opener, Tagenarine. On their first mission, they put on just six runs with Tagenarine the first to go for three while Hemraj, in his new role went on to get 23. In the second innings, Hemraj was dismissed without scoring while the partnership was just two runs.
However, with the Jaguars looking for a set pair at the top of the order they persisted with the youngsters who eventually. Their best partnership, 115, came in round five at Providence against Barbados Pride with the 21-year old younger Chanderpaul getting 52, what was then his second half century of the tournament while his 24-year old partner scored 79, his third 50-plus score of the season and what was then his career best knock and the turning of the corner.
As the Jaguars prepare for the final round match against the Red Force beginning on Friday at Providence, Hemmy as Hemraj is called on the field, when asked about his new role told Guyana Times Sport “Well, initially when I was positioned as an opener it was a bit of a challenge, I had to take the time to reevaluate my batting style but nothing major; nevertheless, being teamed up with Brandon was a bonus as I have known him from way back and we played together a lot of times and I think we compliment each other well, give support to each other at the crease and we are enthusiastic for one another’s success while we try our best to give the team a good foundation.”
Hemmy further stated that he was happy to see Brandon convert to three figures, “Coach was always stressing on one of the openers to score a 100, I came close first innings but was really happy to see “Branny” get it in the second innings.”
Hailing from the village of Mahaica on the East Coast Demerara, Hemraj played his first nine of his 16 First Class matches as a middle order batsman has suddenly come of age as an opener which has now brought him 416 runs (average 37.82) from seven matches of his 551 runs (average 34.44) from nine matches this season. In his overall career, he has 774 runs at an average of 26.68.
Tagenarine or Brandon as he is also known as, has played all eight matches this season as an opener has scored 423 runs from 15 innings at an average of 38.45 compared to his career stats of 1,179 runs from 24 matches at an average of 28.75.
From a statistical stand-point, it is clear that the very good mates on and off the field compliment each other and their club, the Everest Cricket Club (ECC) have recognized their achievements.
In a congratulatory statement, President of the club Rajesh Singh stated, “We the executive and members of ECC extend congratulations on your career-best innings and look forward to more special innings from Brandon and Hemmy and the other ECC members in the Jaguars team. You have certainly done ECC and Guyana proud, keep on batting.”
Other Everest players this season include Chandrika, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Akshaya Persaud and Bhaskar Yadram. Persaud made his debut when Brandon was ill in Jamaica while Yadram is with the Windies U-19 team in the Youth World Cup in New Zealand.
Hemraj is only 20 runs behind Anthony Bramble (571 runs) on the list of run getters for the Jaguars while Tagenarine is the fifth Jaguars batsman over 400 runs and 60 runs more than his father, Shivnarine.
The Jaguars have won their fourth consecutive Headley/Weekes Trophy this season.
