West Indies left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul took three of the fours wicket to fall for Vishaul Singh’s X1 at Providence yesterday on a truncated second day of the second and final four-day practice match to select the Guyana Jaguars team for the inaugural West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Professional Cricket League Regional Four-Day Franchise Tournament, which starts on November 14.
The 25-year-old Permaul maintained immaculate control in an incisive 33-over spell while off-spinner Narsingh Deonarine took the other wicket to fall in the innings as Singh’s XI, resuming the day on 311-6 failed to pile on the pressure on Leon Johnson’s XI and were bowled out for 349 after the entire opening session was lost due to rain. Johnson’s XI were 106-4 in reply when rain and then bad light halted the day’s play prematurely.
When play finally commenced at noon in sunny conditions, Deonarine had Chanderpaul Hemraj, who began the day on 39, taken at long-on for 44 at 314-7 before polished off the tail by removing Kemo Paul (12), Jason Sinclair (4) and Ricardo Adams (16) at end the innings at 12:43hrs.
By Tea, Johnson had progressed to 56-2 having lost Rajendra Chandrika, who hit Raj Nanan’s second ball to short-cover after stroking three fours in 29 to break a solid 54-run opening stand.
Two runs later, Jacobs who extracted prodigious bounce and turn from an already wearing track, spun a couple of balls past Trevon Griffith’s outside edge before getting one to straighten to trap the left-hander plumb in front for 20 on the stroke of Tea.
This was after a controlled spell from new ball bowlers Raun Johnson and Canadian based Jeremy Gordon had limited free scoring on a track which made playing through the line a difficult task.
After Tea, in cloudy conditions, it was a battle of attrition as Deonarine and Guyana Captain and this Country’s newest Test player Leon Johnson buckled to the job of occupying the crease to rebuild the innings against stifling spin bowling from Nanan and Jacobs who operated in tandem.
The tall Jacobs had Deonarine, who became the first batsman to score 1,000 runs in a Regional season in 2008, all at sea at the start of his innings before the Berbician broke the shackles with a disdainful sweep for four off Nanan who bowled ‘gun barrel’ straight.
Jacobs, in the middle of a mesmerising spell, got one to spin viciously past Johnson’s probing forward push while the slimly built Nanan locked down one end, while Jacobs attacked at the other with his quick off-breaks on the slow track.
Nanan failed to clutch onto a difficult caught and bowled offering when Johnson drove firmly at his GCC team mate who was almost taken to the boundary with the ball.
However, the finger injury did not seem to bother Nanan as he continued to bowl a miserly spell from the Northern end while Jacobs was used from the South. Johnson broke the pedestrian paced scoring rate with an elegant back cut past point for four off Nanan, while Deonarine pulled Jacobs through mid-wicket for another boundary to ease the pressure.
Johnson then rocked back to hammer Jacobs through wide mid-on before Nanan trapped Johnson LBW for a patient 19 with two fours and six to end a 36-run stand and leave Johnson’s XI on the 92-3.
Shiv Chanderpaul, who has batted for over 1,000 minutes in Test cricket without being dismissed four times, did not last long this time. After scoring just two runs Chanderpaul got one that bounced and turned from Jacobs and was taken at silly mid-off by Hetmyer to leave the score 96-4.
Rain stopped play at 16:00hrs with Deonarine surviving a testing period to be unbeaten on 23 with him is Chris Barnwell on two. Jacobs (2-27) and Nanan (2-32) have helped to leave Johnson’s XI still 243 away from Singh’s XI total with six wickets in hand. Play on day three is scheduled to commence at 09:00hrs.
(Taken from Kaieteur News, by Sean Devers)