Guyana looking to cage English Lions at Providence
BUOYED by the return of discarded West Indies middle order batsman Narsingh Deonarine from injury, hosts Guyana should be looking to tame and later cage England’s ‘A’ team known as the English Lions, when their fifth round West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB) Regional four-day competition match commences at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, today.
After four rounds of competition, Guyana have accumulated 13 points, having lost their first-round match to defending champions Jamaica, despite taking first innings points, while the Windward Islands defeated them outright in the third round.
Their second-round game against the Leeward Islands was washed out without a ball being bowled at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) ground, and in their last encounter, Guyana took first innings points from Barbados.
Certainly, the initial approach of the England Lions team will be to exploit the brittle and, to an extent, spineless Guyanese batting lineup despite the presence of Deonarine, hence putting their hosts under pressure.
Coach of the English Lions, Mick Newell, highlighted this fact in an invited comment from local journalists, during his side’s first practice session at the venue on Wednesday, going one step further to forecast a solid batting approach from his charges.
He mentioned 24-year-old right-arm pacer Jade Winston Dermbach, who is second behind CCC’s Ryan Austin (18) with 17 wickets from three games, as a key element with the ball. 
“We will be looking to put a lot of runs on the board and with fast bowler Jade Winston Dernbach who has been a pretty effective quick bowler for us in the lineup, along with the two quality spinners playing most of the time; we are looking to put together a pretty balanced team and see if we can get on top of the opposition that way.
“Obviously, Guyana are missing some key players and that is reflected in the scores that they have been putting together so we would see that as an area we would like to exploit and get on top of, especially when they bat, as we will try and put them under pressure. But we have not won a game in a number of weeks and so we have got to work hard at getting 20 wickets,” stated the 46-year-old Newell.
In comparison to Guyana’s batting, the English cricketers have been able to pile on the runs throughout the tournament, securing the top two spots with scores of 553-6 declared against Leeward Islands and 538 against Barbados.
Former England middle order batsman Graham Thorpe is travelling with the Lions as their batting coach and according to Newell, this is a good opportunity for the players to draw from his experience, but what is of concern is his bowling lineup.
“With the plethora of flat, slow pitches in the Caribbean it would make it harder for the bowlers to take 20 wickets, especially with the ball not swinging enough, which means the bowlers had to learn some new skills.
“We had to teach the bowlers about reverse swing, bowling certain spells of bounce to be aggressive with batsmen when we can be. But as you know, the pitches don’t lend themselves to that so there has to be short spells and then change the bowling around,” the former part-time leg-spinner stressed.          
But while Newell was concerned over his bowling, Guyana’s coach Mark Harper has question marks over his batsmen’s performance in the tournament so far.
Only once have Guyana surpassed the 300-mark, and that was in the first innings of the last round against Barbados, but they struggled to score quickly in the second innings of the same match, despite a handsome 128-run first-innings lead.
“We have the talent and we showed some batting improvements in the first innings of our last game, but what we need to do is build on starts and hope that once the batsmen get in, they can build on those starts.
“With Narsingh back in the middle order, I am hoping the junior players will rally around him, while at the same time he can guide them along,” said Harper during his team’s assimilation match exercise at the GCC ground on Tuesday.
He was high in praise of his bowlers who have been doing a tremendous job this season and even though they will be without the services of leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo (West Indies duty) and the discarded pair of Esaun Crandon and Christopher Barnwell, Harper is still optimistic of his bowlers’ chances against the Lions.
Essequibo’s national youth fast bowler Ronsford Beaton will have a smile on his face, since he will be going one step further than his Inter-county teammate Trevor Benn, who toured but did not play any games with the national team in last year’s tournament.
Beaton is expected to share the new ball with West Indies fast bowler Brandon Bess on what is expected to be a flat Providence track, with skipper Assad Fudadin, Royston Crandon, Veerasammy Permaul and Zaheer Mohammed offering support in the bowling department.
With Deonarine back in the fray, the middle order of the batting lineup will be strengthened, even though Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Travis Dowlin are absent.
Deonarine will have support from Gajanand and Vishal Singh (no relation), Royston Crandon and former West Indies Under-19 skipper Leon Johnson, while Fudadin and Rajendra Chandrika are expected to face the Lions’ new-ball attack.
The final 11 for both teams will be chosen from: Guyana  – Assad Fudadin, Rajendra Chandrika, Narsingh Deonarine, Royston Crandon, Derwin Christian, Leon Johnson, Steven Jacobs, Gajanand Singh, Vishal Singh, Veerasammy Permaul, Zaheer Mohammed, Brandon Bess and Ronsford Beaton.
England Lions: James Hildreth, Jimmy Adams, Jonathan Bairstow, Ravi Bopara, Danny Briggs, Nathan Buck, Maurice Chambers, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Andrew Gale, James Haris, Craig Keiswetter, Adam Lyth, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Ben Stokes, James Taylor and Chris Woakes.
Weather permitting, the action is set to get under way at 09:30 h.