Johnson, Chanderpaul record partnership suppress T&T

CWI/ Digicel Regional 4-Day Championship 2017-18

By John Ramsingh in Tarouba

A record second wicket partnership between Leon Johnson and Tagenarine Chanderpaul put the Guyana Jaguars in the ascendency at the end of day one in their Cricket West Indies Digicel Regional 4-Day Tournament fourth round match against Trinidad and Tobago Red Force at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy on Thursday.
The left-handed pair put on 174 runs for the second wicket which surpasses the previous record of 165 against Trinidad and Tobago between Roy Fredericks and Alvin Kallicharran at the Queen’s Park Oval in 1972. The partnership was a built on a mixture of solid defence, good rotation of the strike and exceptional concentration for all of the 371 balls.

Along the way Tagenarine scored his fourth First Class half century in his career best knock passing his previous best of 81. After his dismissal in the final session, skipper Johnson brought up his fifth First Class century to see the Jaguars to the end on a commanding 245 for 2 from 90 overs.
In his 20th match at this level, Tagenarine brought up his half from 163 balls with four fours and when he was dismissed in the 76th over he had faced 235 balls with eight fours. On the other hand, Johnson was a bit more free-flowing bringing up his 32nd half century from 102 balls with six boundaries. He later converted to three figures from 201 balls with 10 charming boundaries.

When stumps were drawn, Vishaul Singh who hit two fours so far was on 22 while Johnson was on 106 in a nice little partnership of 38 in relatively quick time.
Earlier, Johnson won the toss and opted to bat on the very placid track rid of life including grass. After the first hour of play, the visitors were 29 without loss from 13 steady overs from the Red Force seamers and one from Bryan Charles.
Immediately after the break, Hemraj pulled Primus for his fourth boundary before he was outfoxed three balls later. The Barbados- born Primus hit a similar length but angled the ball away from the left-hander who got a healthy edge through to wicketkeeper Amir Jangoo. It was the only wicket across two sessions and the Red Force bowlers were made to work hard.
For most part of the day’s ply they were without captain Denish Ramdin who pulled a hamstring while attempting to stop a ball on the third-man boundary. Kyle Hope took charge of operation and in all; seven bowlers were used with seamers Primus and Daniel St. Clair picking up the wickets.
Play resumes today at 14:00h.