West Indies Championships: Fifties from Paul, Permaul power GHE; Jangoo responds in kind
After recording a strong performance on Friday against the Trinidad and Tobago Red Force in their Round 7 clash being played in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the Guyana Harpy Eagles (GHE), defending champions in this tournament, have been left eyeing a drawn result today (Saturday) in what would be the final day’s play of this match.
Veerasammy Permaul hit a half-century
Should nothing wildly dramatic and exciting happen at the Queen’s Park Oval in T&T today, the Harpy Eagles would have to settle for points shared with the Red Force, after their batters Keemo Paul and Veerasammy Permaul had taken them to a strong total on Friday.
Day 3 at the Port-of-Spain venue saw the Harpy Eagles resuming their innings at 269-5 with Kevin Sinclair and Keemo Paul at the crease. Sinclair got to 35 off 69 before perishing, but Paul struck 47 before a hit on the helmet forced this all-rounder to retire hurt.
However, after Ronaldo Alimohamed and Ashmead Nedd could add only 19 and 22 runs respectively to the GHE tally, Paul returned to convert his score to 93 off 126 balls before falling agonizingly short of a century.
Veerasammy Permaul struck 52 runs off 94 balls before the Harpy Eagles were bowled out for 463 in 132.3 overs.
Kary Pierre was the star of the Red Force bowlers, claiming 4-119 from 44 overs, while Jyd Goolie picked up 2-29 from 11.3 overs.
Keemo Paul put up a big score but fell short of a century
The Harpy Eagles left the Red Force a 223-run deficit to chop down with the afternoon session and a day’s play left in the match, and the Red Force were off to a solid start after losing Kamil Pooran early for 7 runs. The pair of Cephas Cooper and Amir Jangoo buckled down for a 77-run partnership before the second wicket was taken. Jangoo brought up his half century in 90 balls, but fell soon after, as he chipped down the track against Sinclair’s bowling and had his stumps disturbed by Tevin Imlach instead. Five overs later, the day’s play ended with Cooper unbeaten on 26 from 91 balls while Bryan Charles had 1 from 11 as the Red Force cruised to 101-2 in 35 overs.
Sinclair had returns of 1-7 from 5 overs, while Ronaldo Alimohamed had 1-24 from 8 overs.
The hosts, however, are still trailing by 122 runs with 8 wickets remaining.
Should the Harpy Eagles win or manage to force a draw in today’s final day, they would have secured their third consecutive West Indies Championships title and 8th in 10 years.
