…Jaguars did not bat well on a tough pitch
– Shiv Chanderpaul
By Brandon Corlette
The match between 5-time defending champions of the CWI PCL 4-Day Championship tournament, Guyana Jaguars, and the lightly esteemed Jamaica Scorpions ended yesterday with the Scorpions prevailing by seven runs to hand the Jaguars their second loss in this edition of the tournament.
Veerasammy Permaul scored 63 runs across both innings
The pitch at Providence was allegedly not of the highest standard, and the scores in this fourth-round match between these two teams are supposed to be evidence of this.
After the match, Guyana Jaguars Assistant Coach/ Manager, the legendary Shivnarine Chanderpaul, reflecting on the Jaguars’ effort, disclosed that batsmen needed to register better batting efforts.
“Obviously we did not bat well, we needed to bat a bit better. It was probably a difficult pitch to bat on, the wicket was not that easy. You look at the scores and (see that) no team reached 200; so, it’s definitely difficult to play on a wicket like that,” Chanderpaul declared.
“In saying that, both teams had the same opportunity to play on the wicket. Jamaica played better, and we came out on the back end of it,” Chanderpaul explained.
In this match, Anthony Bramble’s 36 was the highest individual score by a Jaguars batsman in an innings. Asked if that is an area of concern, Chanderpaul told media operatives at Providence: “It’s not an easy wicket, but they got starts and they never carried on in this game. Some of the guys got decent starts in the season, we have a lot of half-centuries in the team, but no hundred as yet. This is some of the plans/goals we have in place (batsmen scoring hundreds).
“(It is) still early in the tournament, and, hopefully in the next couple of games, we can start hitting them.”
The 45-year-old Chanderpaul was, nevertheless, pleased with the effort displayed by Veerasammy Permaul and Keon Joseph, who added 44 runs together for the final wicket.
“It shows that we have great fight! It does not matter if we are down to the last guy or not, this shows that we are a good team that will always play hard. Thinking about international teams like Australia, they will never give up; they fight all the way to the end,” he said.
After four rounds in this 2020 season, Jaguars’ batsmen have recorded 10 half-centuries, with the highest individual score being 91, made by Bramble. Leading the batting charts for Jaguars this season is Christopher Barnwell (2 half-centuries), who has an aggregate of 265 runs at an average of 37.85; while Tagenarine Chanderpaul (3 half-centuries) has an aggregate of 264 runs at an average of 44.
Chandrapaul Hemraj (2 half-centuries) has an aggregate of 247 runs at an average of 35.28. With the fifth round quickly approaching, these batsmen will be eager to have a century breakthrough.
In the Jaguars’ bowling department, Permaul has taken 26 wickets at a stunning average of 11.57, while Nial Smith has snared 18 scalps and Joseph has taken 11 wickets. Raymon Reifer follows with seven wickets.
The bowling has thus far been up to the mark, but the batting has raised question marks. Will the Jaguars batsmen produce performances capable of breaking the triple-figure barrier this season? Only time will tell.
