Guyana Harpy Eagles trials: Savory, Chanderpaul record half-centuries on hard fought day

Story and photos by Brandon Corlette at Albion

Kemol Savory and Tagenarine Chanderpaul scored cautious half-centuries on the final day of the first Guyana Harpy Eagles 4-Day trial match at Albion. Under sweltering sunshine, and in the presence of a small number of vocal spectators, the match petered out to a draw, with Leon Johnson XI ending on 170-3.
Savory struck 54 runs from 189 balls after battling for 238 minutes in an innings that included three fours and one six, while Chanderpaul constructed a 154-ball 52 with two fours and one six.
Resuming the final day on 8 without loss, trailing by 95 runs, Raymond Perez and Tagenarine Chanderpaul of Johnson’s XI added nine more runs before Perez was cleaned up by Veerasammy Permaul for 10, at 17-1.
Kemol Savory and young Chanderpaul then joined forces, and the duo battled the sweltering heat at Albion in taking the score to 77-1 at lunch. Chanderpaul was unbeaten on 33 while Savory was on 31.

The duo continued their cautious approach, but before the tea interval, Chanderpaul and Savory had an error in judgement and both batsmen were running at the same end. As a result, Chanderpaul was run out for a 154-ball 52, which included two fours and one six, in a 193-minute innings. The left-handed duo had featured in a 96-run partnership.
At 113-2, captain Johnson took centre stage and partnered Savory. At tea, both Savory and Johnson were unbeaten. The wicketkeeper-batsman from Essequibo was unbeaten on 51, while Johnson was on two. In the afternoon session, Savory had an adrenalin rush and was caught at long-on for a 189-ball 54 off the bowling of Ashmead Nedd. He departed with the score on 141-3.

Vishal Singh joined his skipper, and the man called ‘Cheezey’ played some attacking shots early in his innings. The match eventually came to an end with Johnson on 32 from 94 balls, made in 112 minutes and including four boundaries, one being a sweetly timed reverse-sweep.
Singh was unbeaten on 11 from 36 balls in his 48 minutes at the crease. Ashmead Nedd claimed 1-33 in 20 overs, while Permaul had 1-51 in 20 overs.
Earlier in the match, Johnson’s XI scored 254 all out, while Paul’s XI made 357 all out. In the second innings, Johnson’s XI made 170-4 as Paul’s XI did not bat in the second innings.

Albert Smith, the former coach who coached Guyana to Stanford triumph in 2006, is currently playing the role of selector for Guyana senior men’s team. He watched the match under a proverbial microscope. This match will serve as reference to select the first Guyana Harpy Eagles team to play in the upcoming Regional 4-Day tournament in February.
The Guyana selectors will be fine tuning their selection, while the players will return to Albion on January 12 for the second of three trial matches. The final practice match is tentatively set for January 18-21 the National Stadium at Providence.