On another rain affected day, the Guyana Jaguars maintained their dominance at the Kensington Oval in round nine of the Digicel Regional Four-Day Championship on Saturday thanks.
Batting a second time, the champions were 154 for 4 when bad light stopped play for the third consecutive day with opener Tagenarine Chanderpaul on 66 and wicketkeeper Anthony Bramble on nine. The hosts were kept in the contest with another fiery spell from rookie fast bowler Chemar Holder but were held up by the stubborn knock from Tagenarine Chanderpaul.
Tagenarine Chanderpaul will look to convert his well-constructed innings of 66 not out to a maiden century today at the Kensington Oval
Holder, the former West Indies under 19 fast bowler who was part of the championship winning team two years ago, followed up his first innings five-for to pick up three of the Jaguars wickets in their second innings so far but could not remove the younger Chanderpaul who has so far faced 197 balls while hitting five fours. It is Chanderpaul’s fourth half century this season and seventh of his career which has now spanned 24 matches.
After the Jaguars openers put on 44 for the opening wicket, Holder got the breakthrough when first innings top scorer, Chandrapaul Hemraj was sent back shortly after lunch. Leon Johnson hung around briefly but also perished to the fired up Holder who is playing his first match at this level.
At 66 for 2, Windies “A” team vice-captain joined Chanderpaul and they consolidated for 73 valuable runs. Singh was very busy at the crease in hitting eight fours from exactly 100 balls before he was outfoxed by Warrican to end the stand.
The senior Chanderpaul, Shivnarine, then joined his son and got what is arguably the ball of the match so far. The veteran followed a Holder delivery which was pitched on middle and moved slightly away from the left-hander’s off stump only to nick it fine to wicketkeeper Shane Dowrich. Shiv was gone for a rare duck and suddenly the Jaguars had lost two wickets for one run.
With the light fading quickly, Bramble was hit on the helmet from a short ball from Miguel Cummins and moments later the umpires, Jonathan Blades and Patrick Gustard decided that enough was enough and ended the day’s play with the Jaguars ahead by 252 runs.
Earlier, the hosts resumed on 147 for 7 surprisingly got to 199 before they were all out in the first session. Overnight batsman, Kemar Roach moved from 15 to 51 with nine fours to give the Pride’s score some amount of respectability after they were steering down the barrel on day two at 115-6 when he walked to the crease. Roach first put on 52 for the eighth wicket with fellow overnight partner, Jomel Warrican who made 22 after beginning on 13. Warrican was first to go to give Romario Shepherd his maiden Regional five-wicket haul in his ninth match.
Roach then continued on and with debutant, Holder added 26 for the ninth wicket but was dismissed shortly after bringing up his third First Class half century. In all he batted for 69 balls and became his side’s first victim of spin in the form of left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul. Shortly after his dismissal, the innings folded and the Pride were denied a batting bonus point while giving the four-time reigning champions a lead of 98. If the weather allows for a full day’s play, the Jaguars with five wickets in hand may want to bat for another session for maybe another 125 runs and then invite the Pride to have a good or try to survive two sessions which will make today’s final day an interesting one.
