Narsingh Deonarine, who was ignored by the Guyana Inc. Franchise turned out to be the man with the “golden arm” as he undermined his compatriots and the Guyana Jaguars’ confidence and extinguished their hopes of dethroning the Trinidad and Tobago Red Force in the first NAGICO Super50 semi-final contested at the Queen’s Park Oval last evening.Deonarine was the T&T Red Force’ marksman and prised out last round centurion Assad Fudadin and stalwart Shivnarine Chanderpaul who has been Guyana Jaguars’ most prolific run-getter in

the Regional List A competition overs the years.
Deonarine had Fudadin adjudged LBW for 9 and bowled Chanderpaul off the inside edge into his stumps for only six runs to his credit. The Jaguars were reduced to 37 for 2.
All the other Guyanese batsmen, with the exception of Anthony Bramble who made a breezy 51; did not lift their overall batting performances to overhaul the challenging total set by the Trinidadians.
With the 54-run victory, defending champion Trinidad and Tobago Red Force gave themselves another opportunity of winning back-to-back NAGICO Super50 title when they overpowered the Guyana Jaguars.
Having been asked to take first strike by the Jaguars’ captain Leon Johnson, TT Red Force amassed 259 for 9 off their allotted 50 overs mainly through the brilliance of Darren Bravo who topscored with 95 that was embellished with five massive sixes and four fours. He was voted “Man of Match”.
Guyana Jaguars were restricted to 205 all out (48.3 overs) with the injured Steven Jacobs unable to bat after having strained his lower left side intercostals muscles during his impressive bowling stint.
Jon Russ Jagesser (three wickets for 36 runs), Deonarine (2 for 35) and Akeal Hosein (2 for 42) were the main destroyers for T&T Red Force team which could have secured a bigger margin of victory had their fielders not dropped no less than three easy chances.
Earlier, the T&T Red Force openers Evin Lewis and Kyle Hope struggled to score freely especially against off-spinner Steven Jacobs whose nagging accuracy and clever variations made life extremely uncomfortable for both batsmen whose lack of footwork left much to be desired on a sluggish pitch.
And despite a left side strain sustained in his third over, Jacobs persevered and eventually prised out both Lewis and Hope within the space of five runs. He forced Hope (15 runs, 21b, 2x4s) to push forward and umpire Patrick Gustard ruled came off the edged and ballooned to second slip where Johnson dived to his right to take the catch low down.
It was 39 for 1 and soon after Lewis was caught by wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin off Jacobs for 20 (34b, 4x4s). Kjorn Ottley and Darren Bravo compiled 85 for the third wicket stand when Ottley was caught by Johnson off Gudakesh Motie for 33 (62b, 3x4s).
Bravo was joined by West Indies senior player Ramdin and they upped the tempo and took away the initiative from the Guyana Jaguars with a pulsating 90-run fourth wicket partnership that changed the course of the match and provided the Red Force with a significant cushion despite losing a clutter of four wickets for the addition of 40 runs in the last six overs.
Ramdin smashed four fours off 44 balls during his entertaining knock while Bravo made a late charge of getting to the triple figure mark. The dashing left-hander had hammered three mighty sixes of Motie but perished in the process when he attempted to reach the landmark with another huge six off the bowling of Veerasammy Permaul.
Bravo, who hit five sweetly-timed sixes and four glorious fours off 108 balls; was caught by Raymon Reifer just inside the long on boundary. He slumped to the ground in agony knowing that he missed out on a significant milestone.
Skipper Jason Mohammed made 3 (caught wktkpr Bramble off Wintz) who also picked up Narsingh Deonarine (7) who skied to Johnson at mid-off while Permaul claimed Akeal Hosein (3) caught by Reifer at long on and Reyad Emrit (4) caught by Christopher Barnwell at long off. Both Hosein and Emrit attempted to hit over the boundary marker but found the fielders easily.

By Brij Parasnath