DESPITE a heroic century by Shivnarine Chanderpaul (108), a valiant Guyana team conceded defeat by 45 runs to Trinidad and Tobago in their fourth round WICB Regional 4-day encounter at the Queen’s Park Oval.Having been set a total of 376 runs for victory in 109 overs on Friday afternoon, Guyana frontline batsmen failed to provide a decent platform for an easier passage to the gettable total on a fairly placid strip

that caused few alarms only when speedster Shannon Gabriel was hitting the ball into the bowler’s footmark at the southern.

Batting was a much simpler task than was expected of a fourth day’s pitch and Guyana’s overnight pair of Tagenarine Chanderpaul (27 not out) and Devendra Bishoo (4 not out) resumed the battle with the score at 54 for one wicket and still behind the victory target by 322 runs.
‘Big Shiv’ registered his sixty-fifth First Class century but his brilliant educational knock was in vain when the innings closed at 330 all out at exactly 17:18hrs with 15.2 overs remaining out of the day’s allotted 90.
Final scores: T&T 319 and 251 for 2 wickets declared. Guyana 195 and 330.
The Man-of-the-Match award went to T&T’s finger-spinner Sunil Narine who destroyed Guyana in their first innings with a six-wicket haul and then sealed the victory to finish with match figures of ten wickets. He claimed four wickets for 105 and sparked celebrations by having number eleven Ronsford Beaton caught by substitute Krishna Ramsarran at the mid-off position.
In the morning session, Guyana suffered four major setbacks within the first hour of play. Talented teenager Tagenarine Chanderpaul received a baptism from fiery Shannon Gabriel who extracted considerable bounce from just short of a good length and squared up ‘Lil Shiv’ who gloved a catch to Kieron Pollard at second slip.
He had added only two to his overnight score of 27 and first innings top-scorer Leon Johnson replaced him in the middle for only six minutes and re-joined him back in the pavilion after facing a solitary delivery which he also gloved to Pollard who made no mistake. It was ‘Lil Shiv’ and Johnson who frustrated the Trinidadians in the first innings with a defiant 134-run second-wicket partnership.
Johnson’s golden duck was a bitter taste and then Bishoo retreated to the pavilion when Gabriel’s hostility saw the ball smack his middle finger on his right hand as he flinched from a another sharp-rising delivery that reared like a cobra off the firm surface.
Bishoo was examined by T&T’s team physiotherapist Dr Gulshon and was advised to seek further treatment. He survived a chance at 65 for three and left the field at 75 for 3 (23.3 overs).
Ramnaresh Sarwan joined Narsingh Deonarine who looked in confident and determined mood and was middling everything.
Sarwan opened his account with a perfectly-timed cover drive off the second delivery served up by Gabriel.
Both players were constantly badgered by Dwayne Bravo who indulged in irritating verbal banter that looked unsportsmanlike. It was a clear strategy to unsettle and unnerve the Guyanese batsmen and he succeeded in getting Deonarine to change his gameplan of studious application to one of aggression as he succumbed in controversial fashion to a dubious decision by Jamaican umpire Patrick Gustard, the same official who had turned down Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s two very confident appeals for lbw to Adrian Barath when he was only seven in the second innings.
It should be noted that Barath made an important fifty (56) and featured in a 144-run first-wicket partnership with Lendl Simmons (70).
It was that crucial stand that allowed T&T to score quickly through Darren Bravo (48 not out) and Kieron Pollard (54 not out) and give themselves enough time and overs to battle for full points.
Guyana’s plan to bat through the session without losing any more wickets was interrupted when Deonarine was controversially ruled out after Reyad Emrit claimed the catch from a lobbed stroke from the left-hander who misread Sunil Narine’s doosra and essayed the cover drive a little too early. Deonarine stood his ground and remonstrated while the Trinidadians were jubilant and celebrated the signal from the umpire.
Deonarine kept signalling that the catch was not fairly taken and that it hit the ground before Emrit brought it under his control but neither umpire Gustard nor the T&T players budged and the Albion Cricket Club player walked dejectedly back to the pavilion.
With four wickets down for only 82 runs and still 294 to secure victory, Guyana depended on the experienced Test duo of Ramnaresh Sarwan and ‘Big Shiv’ Chanderpaul to stage another of the customary rearguard fight.
Their discussions and focus were constantly interrupted with verbal confrontation with Bravo who made a point of duty to circle them after almost every delivery and during the overs.
Gradually, Sarwan and Chanderpaul became more fluent in their strokeplay and provided hope that Guyana can register a sensational come-from-behind victory.
At lunch, Guyana were 148 for 4 with Sarwan undefeated on 28 and Shivnarine on 36.
On resumption, both stalwarts rotated the strike and were equally authoritative in their strokeplay against all the bowlers. Sarwan played the most commanding cover off the backfoot from a quicker one sent down by Gabriel to move from 37 to 41 but suffered the ignominy to see his offstump uprooted in the next over when he failed to negotiate a quicker full-length delivery.
Their heart-warming 105-run fifth-wicket partnership left Chanderpaul with the lower order to fight for the top honours. Hopes diminished quickly with the demise of Derwin Christian (1) whose wild swing at Narine saw Dwayne Bravo accepting the straightforward chance at first slip while skipper Veerasammy Permaul (2) gave Bravo his second catch off Gabriel two overs later.
But all was not lost as Paul Wintz, in his second first class match for Guyana, not only provided support for Chanderpaul but outscored with audacious strokes against all the bowlers.
Wintz dominated the ninth-wicket partnership  that was worth 73 invaluable runs and the number ten batsman registered a maiden regional first class fifty (exact 50 with ten fours off 67 balls) before he was bowled by Narine who deceived him with the doosra that knocked back the stumps.
The injured Bishoo resumed his fight and blossomed and, together with Chanderpaul, was associated in an enterprising 60-run ninth-wicket stand.
In an effort to accelerate the scoring with 49 required and time running, Chanderpaul succeeded in edging Bravo’s away swinger into the gloves of a diving Denesh Ramdin who celebrated with his teammates as they knew the end was near.
Shivnarine’s 108 was embellished with 14 fours off 195 deliveries and three runs  later Guyana’s  resistance ended when Beaton (3) drove straight to mid-off. Bishoo was unbeaten on a defiant 47, made up of eight fours off 90 deliveries.

T&T 1st Innings 319
GUYANA 1st Innings 195
T&T 2nd Innings 251 for two decl.
GUYANA 2nd Innings (target: 376 runs)
(overnight 54 for one)
A Fudadin b Emrit 19
T Chanderpaul c Pollard b DJ Bravo 29
D Bishoo not out 47
L Johnson c Pollard b Gabriel 0
N Deonarine c Emrit b Narine 7
R Sarwan b Gabriel 42
S Chanderpaul c c wkp Ramdin b DJ Bravo 108
+D Christian c DJ Bravo b Narine 1
*V Permaul c DJ Bravo b Gabriel 2
P Wintz b Narine 50
R Beaton c (sub) Ramsaran b Narine 3
Extras (b5, lb6, w3, nb8) 22
TOTAL (all out, 90.4 overs) 330
Fall of wicket: 1-45, 2-59, 3-60, 4-82, 5-187, 6-188, 7-194, 8-267, 9-327, 10-330.
Bowling: Gabriel 15-2-49-3, DJ Bravo 14.4-0-49-2, Narine 28.4-4-105-4, Emrit 19.2-5-54-1, Jaggernauth 11-3-35-0, Khan 3-0-27-0.
Points: T&T 12, Guyana 0.