… Crandon, G. Singh axed for CCC encounter
ENGLAND’S ‘A’ team, known as the England Lions, roared on a rain-ruined final day to take first innings points from hosts Guyana in their fifth round West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) regional  four-day match at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, yesterday. As was the scenario over the past three days, rain prevented any play in the first two sessions and when play got under way at 15:00 h, Bairstow struck both Brandon Bess and Assad Fudadin for six to clinch first innings points for his team.
Bairstow  struck  Bess through point to the vacant third man position for four, before the game was called off at 15:13 h, with England Lions on 87-3, with Bairstow 32 and James Hildreth 6, as the match meandered out into a tame draw.
All told, there were 13 minutes of play yesterday, in which 2.1 overs were bowled that saw the Lions accumulate 19 runs, with Bairstow hitting two sixes and three fours from the 19 balls he faced for his 32 while batting for 45 minutes.
Surprisingly, both Fudadin and his opposite number Hildreth decided to call off play, leaving Guyana to be content with three points earned from the draw while England Lions took six for their first innings victory.
Twenty-two-year-old Christopher Woakes who took a hat-trick in Guyana’s first innings on his way to 5-18, was named man-of-the-match.
Meanwhile, the senior selection panel, led by chairman Claude Raphael, took the time to select Guyana’s team for their next encounter against the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) in Barbados from Friday.
Royston Crandon and recalled middle-order batsman Gajanand Singh have both been  axed from the team, while national Twenty20 opener Richard Ramdeen and former West Indies Under-19 fast bowler Keon Joseph are included in the travelling 13-man squad that will be coached by Mark Harper and managed by Carl Moore.
Strangely, while both Harper and Fudadin had been calling on the batsmen to put up decent totals on the board for the bowlers to bowl at, the selection panel has removed two batsmen and added a bowler and an opening batsman.
This means that Fudadin, who opened the batting in the last two matches against Barbados and England Lions, will not be called upon to open the batting on the faster  pitches in the Island of the Flying Fish, since Ramdeen will partner Rajendra Chandrika.
The 13-man squad reads: Assad Fudadin, Rajendra Chandrika, Richard Ramdeen, Narsingh Deonarine, Steven Jacobs, Vishal Singh, Leon Johnson, Derwin Christian, Veerasammy Permaul, Ronsford Beaton, Brandon Bess, Keon Joseph and Zaheer Mohammed.