There wasn’t a single century scored by any batsman in the recently concluded Guyana Cricket Board’s (GCB’s) Senior Intercounty Super50 tournament; the highest scores were 93* and 81, coming off the bats of Tagenarine Chanderpaul and Kevin Sinclair respectively.
Even more alarmingly, there was no collective team score of over 300, the highest being 273-9 scored by Essequibo in their 172-run win over the GCB Select XI.
While to some, the less-than-impressive overall batting performances would be a spot of bother, especially one week before a major regional tournament, Head Coach of the Guyana Harpy Eagles, Ryan Hercules, remains unfazed.
Harpy Eagles Head Coach, Ryan Hercules
As it turns out, Hercules’s position is solidified by a whopping 383-7 that the Harpy Eagles posted in their first practice match against a Guyana ‘Rest Team’ at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) Ground, Bourda on Tuesday. In that commendable batting display, Chandrapaul Hemraj top scored with 81 from 68 deliveries, including 5 fours and 6 sixes, while Romario Shepherd put on a show at the end of the innings by smashing 6 fours and 6 sixes on his way to an unbeaten 73 from 29 balls.
Adding to the scorecard were Kemol Savory’s 53 from 51 balls, Kevin Sinclair’s 38 from 19 balls, Tevin Imlach’s 35 from 38 balls, and Tagenarine Chanderpaul’s 33 off 55 deliveries.
A glimpse of proceedings during the first Harpy Eagles’ practice match
“This practice game today, as a batting unit, we wanted to bat 50 overs obviously, and see how we handle the different phases: first powerplay, second powerplay and third powerplay. I think we’re quite happy. Obviously, if you’re scoring 380+, you’ll take that any day,” a confident Hercules shared exclusively with Guyana Times Sport.
“It was good so far from the batting group, so now just some execution from the bowlers and we’re okay there,” he added.
Quizzed about whether he had any concern for the Harpy Eagles batting, given the performances in the Intercounty Super50 tournament, Hercules responded in the negative.
“Not really, to be honest,” the GHE Head Coach assured.
He explained to this publication, “I take into context the surfaces that you play in Guyana; you know, the different pitches and stuff. And you go overseas and you probably get some better pitch, whatever the case may be, and you have a good unit come together; you’ll have a different result.”
Hercules went on to state that, taking into account recent form and strategy, “…it’s not much of a concern for me. Most of the guys have been playing cricket, just coming out from CPL, some of the guys doing well. Not much of a concern for me, just want to go out there and need to know how we want to execute on the day of the game, and have a clear mindset in terms of how you’re going to go about doing it.”
The Guyana Harpy Eagles will play a second practice match against the Rest Team tomorrow, Thursday October 12th, at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence, East Bank Demerara. (Jemima Holmes)
