A chanceless century by Shimron Hetymer and half-century from Royston Crandon, who put on 119 for the fourth wicket steered Vishual Singh’s X1 into superior position at the end of the opening day of the Guyana Jaguars second practice game against on Tuesday at the National Stadium.

Hetymer notched up an even hundred, while the more experience Crandon stroke an attractive 97 to help Singh’s X1to an imposing 311-6 at close after Captain Vishual Singh won the toss and opted to bat.

The pair came together at 113-3, soon after lunch and was separated mid-way through the final session.

At the close left-hander Chandrapaul Hemraj was on 39 not out and Ricardo Adams is yet to score.

Earlier, Vishual Singh’s X1 took a slight advantage at lunch by negotiated some quality bowling before reaching the break on 76-1.

Opener Kandasammy Surujnarine was not out on 39 and Shimron Hetmyer was not out on 13 at the break.

National opener Tagnarine Chanderpaul was the only wicket to fall in the first session. The right-handed, Surujnarine was more intent on defending for most of session although he did hit a few boundaries. He found an able ally in Hetmyer as they trudged along at a decent pace up to the break.

The Albion player played the new ball well enjoying a crucial first wicket partnership of 40 runs with his partner Chanderpaul (16), but the latter squandered his chance of scoring some runs on a good strip. He was trapped leg before wicket to left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul, who was the most successful bowler to finish the day with 5-75 off 25 overs.

However, despite losing two quick wickets in the middle session, Singh’s X1 remained in the ascendancy.

Surujnarine added just five runs before he was bowled by Permaul for 44. After the 63 runs partnership between Surujnarine and Hetmyer was broken, skipper Vishual Singh, who scored a match winning hundred in the first practice game, joined the West Indies under-19 opener.

But his stay at the crease was short after he was caught at short long-on off Permaul for four.

Hetymer and former West Indies ODI player, Royston Crandon, came together and batted through the session.

The pair overcame some early anxious moments, but remained in control of the proceedings. The duo, however, settled and set about building the foundation for a long innings and looked ominously at ease at the interval.
The left-handed, Hetymer enhanced his reputation, smashing six fours and a six off Motie to reached his half-century, while Crandon also showed his class, hitting similar amount of boundaries to underline Singh’s X1 dominance by the interval, with Hetymer on 79 and Crandon on 48 respectively.

Upon resumption Crandon reached his fifty off a single down the ground. Soon after, the 17-year-old reached his milestone off a swift single through mid-wicket off Deonarine in addition with five more boundaries in the process.
Medium-pacer Christopher Barnwell the removed Hetymer before Permaul managed to sneak one through the gates and comprehensively knocking over Crandon .

At 306-5 and nearing the close of play on day one, Vice-Captain Steven Jacobs (0) who scored a half-century last match became the fifth victim for the left-arm spinner after attempting a wild sweep shot and was trapped leg before wicket.

Both Hemraj and Adams got Singh’s X1 through to stumps without many more alarms. Play will resume today from 09:30 hrs and admission to the venue is free.

(Taken from the Guyana Times, by Rajiv Bisnauth)