Guyana playing for pride in final round encounter against T&T
FOR the 14th time in 11 years, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) will meet in a West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) regional four-day fixture, when the two sides square off in the seventh and final round of this year’s tournament at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, from today.
Hosts Guyana have not won any of their previous six matches to date, with their closest chance of victory coming in the last round when they were asked to score 200 to record a come-from-behind victory against the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) and failed to do so, falling for 191.
T&T, who are presently in third position on 40 points, have not recorded a victory over Guyana since Brian Lara’s spectacular innings at the Queen’s Park Oval in T&T in 2008, and with Guyana holding 4-0 home record over their opponents for the past 11 years, certainly the Assad Fudadin-led Guyana team will be looking to keep that record intact.
In an invited comment following the eight-run loss to CCC, the 25-year-old Fudadin told Chronicle Sport that the team will be undergoing a rap session, where the batsmen’s mental approach will be looked at, since all that’s left to play for in this encounter is pride, especially since Guyana, who are in the cellar position on 16 points, will not make the final four even if they record an outright victory.
“Yes, we will be having a rap session where the mental approach of the batsmen will be on the cards and this will take place before the game against Trinidad, where all we can do is play for pride and not suffer another defeat, especially at home,” said Fudadin.
According to a press release sent from the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB), the 13-man squad that journeyed to Barbados to oppose CCC have been retained for this encounter, and this is a strange move, since a young batsman or two should have been given an opportunity.
Both Fudadin and coach Mark Harper have been bemoaning the inconsistency of the batsman throughout the tournament, with the latter refusing to comment after the last defeat, as he sat and watched Guyana plunge from 163-5 to their eventual total of 191.
Fudadin top-scored with 44, while Derwin Christian and Vishal Singh both made 32 and Leon Johnson 23. No other batsman, including openers Rajendra Chandrika and Richard Ramdeen, passed 20 on a good batting track, despite the uneven bounce that was extracted from the 3 Ws Oval pitch.
But while Harper and Fudadin have been calling on the batsmen to up the ante in the tournament, the senior selection panel axed middle order batsmen Royston Crandon and Gajanand Singh, along with all-rounders Esaun Crandon and Christopher Barnwell.
The first pair were replaced by Ramdeen and Keon Joseph, which meant Fudadin remained with the already spineless middle order batting lineup that folded against the pace/spin combination of Carlos Brathwaite and Ryan Austin, with Brathwaite picking up four of the final five wickets to fall.
How they fare against the Twin Island Republic team that has been churning out exemplary performances in the tournament is left to be seen!
Now would be the perfect time to give former West Indies Under-19 skipper Steven Jacobs, who has been forced to execute the duties of waterboy for the five matches Guyana played so far, a final 11 position, and with his ability to bowl off-spin, backed by his athletic fielding ability, he will serve as an asset to the team.
Ronsford Beaton looked the part in the CCC’s first innings where he snatched two quick wickets, but it was at the Providence stadium he made his debut against England Lions in the previous round, when he went for 25 runs off his two overs.
Joseph is a lively fast bowler whose work ethics was placed under the microscope on a number of occasions, especially at the Under-19 level, but with Guyana looking to play for pride, there is nothing wrong in giving the West Berbice speedster his second match at this level.
No doubt, Ramdeen and Chandrika who have so far aggregated 209 runs at the top of the order, will get the home team innings rolling, with Deonarine, who looked at sea in both innings against CCC, Fudadin (195 runs) and Johnson (190 runs) following in that order.
Jacobs should replace Zaheer Mohammed in the final 11 and along with Vishal Singh (170 runs) and Derwin Christian, can be expected to bolster the middle order, with Veerasammy Permaul, Brandon Bess and Joseph completing the lineup in that order.
With Bess and Joseph being capable enough to share the new ball, Fudadin offering worthy support as he did in the previous matches with his medium pace, Permaul, Jacobs and to an extent Deonarine taking care of the spin department, Guyana’s pride in regional cricket should remain intact, despite their mediocre performances for the past three years.
The visitors’ batting will be led by their inspirational skipper Daren Ganga who has two centuries under his belt, with support from his younger brother Sherwin, discarded West Indies wicketkeeper/batsman Dinesh Ramdin and the talented all-rounder Lendl Simmons.
Jason Mohammed, Yannick Cariah and Rayad Emrit have all proved to be worthy customers with the bat for T&T, who will welcome back the services of Kieron Pollard, Ravi Rampaul and Darren Bravo for the final four.
Emrit, Cariah, Shannon Gabriel, Imran Khan, Amit Jaggernauth, Atiba Allert and Sherwin Ganga will take charge of the bowling attack, with Simmons providing support with his medium pace.
T&T from: Daren Ganga – captain, Denesh Ramdin, Lendl Simmons, Jason Mohammed, Imran Khan, Dave Mohammed, Rayad Emrit, Amit Jaggernauth, Shannon Gabriel, Atiba Allert, Sherwin Ganga, Yannick Carriah, Tishan Maraj and Nicholas Alexis.
Guyana from: Assad Fudadin (captain), Richard Ramdeen, Rajendra Chandrika, Leon Johnson, Narsingh Deonarine, Vishal Singh, Steven Jacobs, Derwin Christian, Veerasammy Permaul, Brandon Bess, Keon Joseph, Zaheer Mohammed and Ronsford Beaton.