Nothing spectacular yet from Guyana Jaguars batsmen – Coach Crandon

CWI PCL 4-Day Championships…
By Brandon Corlette
Guyana Jaguars are table-leaders heading into the fourth-round clash against Jamaica Scorpions in the Cricket West Indies (CWI) Professional Cricket League (PCL) 4-Day Championships. As the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) continues to play mind games in announcing the team to the public until the very last moment, a fit and ready Raymon Reifer is set to return.

At the Jaguars training session, Guyana Times Sport caught up exclusively with Head Coach Esuan Crandon, who spoke on the three rounds played thus far and previewed the match-up against Scorpions which is slated from tomorrow, Thursday, February, 6, to Sunday, February 9. “It was a decent start for us, not something we are accustomed to (losing one match early), but it is what it is. Seven rounds to go and we need to take them one round at a time”, Crandon explained.

Calling for centuries
He further highlighted that the Jaguars had played some decent team cricket in the earlier rounds with some individual performances being in the spotlight. From the team’s batting perspective, Crandon had this to say: “nothing spectacular yet, we have been asking the batters to chunk out some hundreds for us and we haven’t seen any yet, guys have promised hundreds this game and we are looking forward to that”.

In the first three rounds, Jaguars batsmen have posted 10 half-centuries with batsmen failing to convert those in any century. The ever-solid Tagenarine Chanderpaul has the most runs thus far: 247 at 61.75, with three half-centuries of his own. Christopher Barnwell, who is in red-hot form, has 219 runs— only the second Jaguars batsman with over 200 runs thus far in the season. The pugnacious Barnwell is averaging 43.80 and has already registered two half-centuries.
Chandrapaul Hemraj (196), Vishal Singh (151), Anthony Bramble (119) and Leon Johnson (111) are the other batsmen that surpassed 100 runs in the tournament this far. These are the early days, but Jaguars batsmen will feel the need to score centuries in this fourth-round clash against Scorpions. The closest score to a hundred this season for Jaguars has been 91 which was scored by Bramble, who has shown signs of being arguably the best wicket-keeper batsman in the region.

Crandon happy with bowling

From a bowling perspective, Jaguars are right up there with the best this season. Nial Smith and “Mr Regional”, Veerasammy Permaul, are tied with 16 wickets each in three matches. Smith is the only bowler with five-wicket hauls thus far in the season. The right-arm speedster has two 5-fers with a best of 6-55 in what has been a dream start. Keon Joseph, the experienced campaigner, has 11 wickets in his three outings.

“The bowlers have done really well thus far, they were able to pick up 20 wickets for us to win a game; Smith was very impressive, Joseph, we know what he’s capable of and he has shown his experience in picking up wickets, and Permaul among the leading wicket-takers. I am happy where we’re at presently,” Crandon told this daily publication.
Sharing his sentiments on Reifer, Crandon stated that the Bajan, who is set to return after nursing an injury, has produced the goods for Jaguars since the inception. “He has done a tremendous job for us, he has been a real professional, his work would have been a stand-out with both bat and balls. Reifer has been gelling well with the guys, he is like a Guyanese,” Crandon concluded.